


Symphony in Magic

by Surfbored (ladysockalot)



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Magic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-26
Updated: 2017-08-27
Packaged: 2018-12-20 06:28:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 42,342
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11915124
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladysockalot/pseuds/Surfbored
Summary: When Steve McGarrett received a liver from Danny Williams there were certain magical implications Steve had no idea about. Now Steve has a lot of questions and Danny has a lot of secrets he's going to have to share.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Many thanks to my cheerleader/beta Nix without whom I would never have finished this fic.  
> Thank of this as magical AU start to season 7.  
> Also I have edited to split it up into chapters. Hopefully this makes a better reading experience.

As he drove home Steve felt tired. It wasn’t a normal tired either. Sure, he had recently had a liver transplant and an extended hospital stay, but he recognised the tiredness that came with the body healing itself and this wasn’t it. It felt deeper than that, as if his body was trying to use energy that wasn’t even there. He winced carefully in his seat as his scar throbbed a little. He’d had it checked it out, as per Danny’s suggestion (which had been more like an order complete with patented William’s glare) and aside from some medical suggestions to take it easy it was okay.

 

That was the plan for tonight, to take it a little easy. As he pulled up outside his house however Steve’s heart rate shot right up. There were lights on. He knew Mary was on the mainland, he’d spoken to her just before he was released from hospital, so it couldn’t be her. It wouldn’t be Danny or the rest of the team they would have let him know they were coming.

 

He hoped it wasn’t Doris and doubted it would be. His mother had been her usual silent self. Not even a near death experience for Steve had got through to her maternal instincts which was disappointing, but not unexpected. However, Steve didn’t have time to ponder his complicated relationship with the woman that was his mother. Someone was in his house.

 

As he turned the engine off he was already reaching for his gun. Mentally he could already hear his partner berating him, suggesting that he should call for backup and wait. That would have been the sensible thing to do, but right that at that moment Steve had a tactical advantage and the element of surprise, he couldn’t waste it.

 

Despite this Danny’s words echoed in his head. Maybe he was taking too many chances. He reached for his phone and tapped out a quick text to Danny: ‘Suspected break in please call HPD’ and sent it. That done he gripped his gun and got out of the truck, making sure not to slam the door and ducking low.

 

As soon as he was able to he trained his gun on the house. There was a possibility that whoever it was inside was aware of his approach, the noise of the truck would have been heard, so Steve was careful, keeping to the meagre cover in the garden as best he could.

 

Reaching the front door, he used one hand to gently ease the door open as he kept his gun trained on areas an intruder might be hiding that weren’t quite in his eyeline. The lights reduced the chance of the element of surprise but he had some at least. Steve calmed his breathing and opened the door.

 

Easing it open slowly Steve was greeted with something he didn’t expect. There were two people, a man and a woman. Both older than him, by Steve’s estimation around his mother’s age. Clearly not local from their attire, both wearing what looked like white pantsuits. They looked strange and there was something about their eyes that reminded Steve of something.

 

“Hello, Steve McGarrett,” the woman said. She had short dark hair and a piercing gaze.

 

“How do you know my name?” Steve asked, choosing to keep his weapon trained on the woman.

 

She sighed. “I see Danny Williams hasn’t told you anything.”

 

“What’s Danny got to do with this?” Were these people stalking him and his partner? Was this related to their serial killer case? Steve probably should have waited for backup but it was too late now. He couldn’t afford to lower his gun. There was something that told him the people stood in his house were dangerous, even though he couldn’t make out any weapons, concealed or otherwise.

 

“Daniel Williams has everything to do with this, Steve. Now we don’t need that gun, do we?” the woman said.

 

She raised her hand and a small glow seemed to emanate from her. The glow built up and Steve screwed his eyes up against the glare. It felt as if his gun slipped out of his hand and when the glow died down and Steve opened his eyes again his gun was no longer in his hand. How had she disarmed him? She was still standing where she had been before and neither the woman, nor the man, appeared to have moved.

 

“What did you do?” Steve asked as he looked around, looking for a sign of his gun. It wasn’t on the floor, or in the hands of either of the two intruders currently standing in his living room. What the hell had just happened?

 

“I’d rather you didn’t shoot me,” the woman said.

 

“Who are you?” Steve asked. He wasn’t scared but there was a feeling in his abdomen. It as if something in his insides was jumping up and twisting. He had a sudden feeling of energy and his scar throbbed, but not in a painful way.

 

The woman took a step closer. “I see Danny didn’t tell you of the side effects of the liver transplant. Not a surprise. He’s never been very forthcoming. “

 

“Who are you?” Steve wanted to take a step back but the closer the woman the more intense the feeling got and it wasn’t exactly pain. It reminded him of being stuck in the desert and having to ration water. Each step she took toward him was like a precious sip.

 

“My name is Carol, and this is David,” she said, indicating the man who still stood silently in Steve’s front room. “We’re from the Council.”

 

“What council? What’s going on and what does this have to do with Danny?” Steve asked.

 

“We thought about giving him more time but it’s something we can no longer afford.”

 

There was another strange glow and a large golden staff seemed to appear in the woman’s, Carol’s, hand, as if from nowhere. It looked more like some sort of spear than a staff as she came closer and Steve got a better look. The tip looked as if it could do some serious damage.

 

Steve tried to move into a more defensive position but found he couldn’t. Something was stopping him. Mentally he tried every trick he knew. He had been trained with withstand torture but this was different. Torture was pain but his body wasn’t reacting to pain. It was as if it wanted him to stay where he was because it felt good, even though Steve wouldn’t necessarily quantify the feeling as good at all.

 

Carol aimed the spear at Steve she came forward and rested the tip on Steve’s abdomen. It didn’t feel sharp but it glinted even in the limited light given off by the lamps. “What are you doing?”

 

“Speeding things up. You must have noticed something now. “

 

“Stop this, now,” Steve said, trying to sound authoritative. He felt more vulnerable than he had ever felt in his life, including bleeding out in an aeroplane cockpit.

 

Suddenly Carol pushed the spear forward and Steve braced himself for the pain. Yet it wasn’t the sensation he expected as looking down there was no blood. There wasn’t a sharp burst of pain either. He felt his scar throbbing as if boiling water was being poured down it. The feeling inside him was hot and sharp yet cool and soft all at once, as if shards of hot metal and cool ice were poking around inside him simultaneously. The feeling began to spread like fire along his veins, fire and ice rushing through him as he noticed his skin began to glow.

 

At that moment, he heard a crashing against the front door and the familiar voice of his partner, angry and worried. “Stop! Stop it! We discussed this. The Council promised me Steve would get a natural transition.”

 

“I’m afraid the Council decided that the increasing threats warranted a quicker transition,” Carol said, smiling coldly at Steve and merely glancing at Danny.

 

“You have no right to do this!” Danny and Steve turned to see his partner running toward him.

 

Carol pulled the spear from Steve’s body. Steve looked down feeling woozy and expecting to see a mortal injury but there wasn’t one, even as his insides churned and he shivered hot and cold. He clutched his abdomen and hoped he wasn’t going to bleed out then and there.

 

“It’s already done, Danny. Perhaps you should have informed Steve earlier.”

 

Steve turned to look at Danny He had never seen his partner so grief stricken, not even after he found out Matty was dead or when Grace ad been kidnapped. This was guilt like Steve had never seen openly on display.

 

Danny’s voice was breaking as he spoke, the way it did when he was upset and angry. “I was waiting for the right moment. I thought we had time.”

 

Steve’s mind was a swirl of emotions and his body felt overwhelmed. He crashed to his knees as it got harder to breathe, like the oxygen in the room was being depleted. Steve was not ashamed to admit he felt afraid. “Danny!”

 

That got Danny’s focus. Soon he was there, right at Steve’s side, rubbing Steve’s back. Where Danny touched him, Steve felt better, like pouring cold water on a burn, the burn was still there but you couldn’t feel it.

 

“Steve, don’t fight it okay. I can imagine it must be really hard but trust me, okay, go with it.”

 

“What’s happening, Danny?”

 

Danny had that guilty look on his face again. “I will explain everything, I promise. You just need to breathe. Just hang in there, Steve, okay? We both know you are a stubborn son of bitch so I need you to hold on. You survived nearly dying you can survive this. This is better. This is not going to kill you.”

 

“I think I’m going to...” Steve could feel himself going. He could feel the pull of unconsciousness. He tried to fight it but Danny’s touch and voice sounded so distant now. He was drifting and felt too exhausted to pull himself out of it. Danny was there, nothing bad was going to happen to him whilst his partner was there. Steve then left conscious thoughts behind.

 

**************************************************************************************************

 

Danny had known something was wrong as soon as he’d got home. There had been a weird vibe suggesting the wards had been disturbed. Charlie and Grace sometimes did that without thinking, being young and not yet able to work out the intricacies of the layers of reality around them. This had been different though. Not hostile but not friendly.

 

After he had checked all around the house Danny had realised his mistake. He hadn’t felt his wards being disturbed but the ones around Steve’s house. The ones he’d created so long ago that they were as familiar to him as the ones he created around his own home. Damn. As soon as he had recognised them for what they were he had known he’d had to reach Steve before anything happened.

 

Of course, he had been too late because now he was in Steve’s house and his partner was on the floor, in Danny’s arms, undergoing a full blown and, as far as Danny was concerned, unplanned conversion. Danny couldn’t help but feel guilty. If it hadn’t been for him Steve wouldn’t be going through this. Then again if it hadn’t been for him Steve would likely have died for lack of a new liver. There really hadn’t been any choice, he’d made the only choice he’d had and didn’t regret it. The only question was whether Steve would.

 

“Do you require any further assistance with Steve?” Carol asked.

 

“No, I do not. Now get out of this house!” Danny put a hell of a push behind his words. He rarely let his power flare that fast. He’d have used more but he needed his reserves for Steve’s sake.

 

“We will be in touch,” Carol said. “We expect you to come clean with Steve McGarrett about the true reality of his new condition soon.”

 

“Get out!” Danny said again. He could tell his last little push had surprised Carol. Just because Danny made his living mostly among humans didn’t mean he wasn’t capable of beating a member of his own kind, even if she was a member of council. Danny guessed that was why the silent David had accompanied her, he was an extra bit of muscle had Danny made a scene.

 

“Goodbye, Danny,” Carol said.

 

Danny watched as the two of them walked into the wall and slipped back off. They did it so casually it was almost in contempt of the reality in which Danny lived in. At least with them gone he could now focus on Steve.

 

Conversions like Steve’s were rare, so rare that Danny was the first one in his family to even be in the same state as one, let alone actively involved. Thinking back to various old texts and words of wisdom shared from older generations Danny knew what he had to do.

 

First thing was to get Steve somewhere more comfortable than the floor. It would be a risk to slip upstairs as it would expend precious reserve energy. Danny’s reserves were always fully stocked and he did refill his reserves much quicker than many could. It was one of the reasons he could do what he did in his other law enforcement role, and not the one Steve knew about. Still, he wasn’t sure how much he might need to help Steve.

 

In the end he decided to try to physically get Steve upstairs the human way. Unfortunately, it quickly became apparent that Steve was too much of a dead weight for Danny to really get him very far. Part way up the staircase it became too difficult and Danny chose to slip the rest of the way, careful to use the bare minimum of required energy.

 

Once he had Steve on the bed he took Steve’s clothes off the old-fashioned way. He couldn’t help but feel a bit bitter that finally he was going to get Steve naked in bed and it was in a situation like this. Steve’s skin was glowing quite a lot now and his scar was glowing so brightly it was practically illuminating the room. Thank goodness the bedroom was out of the direct sight of neighbours.

 

Next Danny stripped off. The best thing he could do to stabilise Steve was skin to skin contact. He could do it clothed but it was better to remove all artificial barriers, that much he knew. He cursed that he was getting naked with Steve but as part of worrying life or death situation. Then again that was typical of them.

 

Carefully Danny manoeuvred the two of them onto the bed. He debated pulling the sheet over them but Steve was running too bright for that so Danny spooned up against him. He placed a hand on Steve’s abdomen and could feel the churning waves of energy underneath. He tried to temper the flow a little but it was hard as the waves grew. Like trying to surf without a board.

 

Once the waves of energy died down a bit he then needed to keep the flow steady. It was exhausting pulling energy back and then adding to it to make sure it was a constant amount. His own reserves waxed and waned. Steve grew colder and Danny pulled himself physically closer.

 

After what seemed like an age Steve began to warm up a little and the flow stabilised itself. Danny had no idea how long it had been. He felt exhausted even as he felt the change. The main drama over Danny could finally rest and he pulled himself closer to his partner letting the glow of Steve wash over him until he too was gently glowing in the dark bedroom.

 

****************************************************************************************************

 

It was morning when Steve slowly came too. He felt better, less like he was about to die, but also disorientated. He could hear odd noises, not the lapping of the waves or creaking of beams, the usual sounds he’d expect to hear in a morning but something else like rustling and whispering. He blinked his eyes. The room seemed to move a little each time, as if he was dizzy. And there was an odd glow about everything.

 

Then his other senses picked up and he realised he was in bed but there was a warm body wrapped around him. He glanced down at the arm flung over him and recognised it. That was enough to send Steve sitting straight up in bed, dislodging the arm in the process.

 

“Danny?” Steve asked looking down. Yes, that was his partner who had been wrapped round him.

 

“Okay, you’re awake,” Danny yawned.

 

“Yes, I’m awake, you noticed that,” Steve said glancing down at Danny and himself. “Why are we both naked? And why are you in my bed? “

 

Danny got himself into a seated position. It wasn’t a very elegant move but Danny still seemed sleepy. Why Steve didn’t know. “What do you remember about last night?” Danny asked, rubbing his eyes.

 

Steve frowned as small flashes of memory appeared. “There was a woman and a man, they were here and then…” Steve scrunched his eyes shut, remembering he’d done that last night. “Danny, my gun…”

 

Steve got up to move but found everything felt wrong. He felt dizzy and the room was moving again. Everything seemed to get closer and move further away.

 

“Of course, it’s the gun you focus on. I should have guessed,” Danny’s hand was on his shoulder and he encouraged Steve to lie back a little. “Look, Steve, you need to take it easy, okay? You need to focus on something.”

 

“Like the fact we’re naked and I have no idea what happened here last night?”

 

“Yes, if that’s going to help.”

 

“Tell me what’s going on, Danny. Someone broke into my house and stabbed me and you seemed to know who it was.”    

 

Danny had that guilty look again. Steve hated this the feeling that Danny was keeping something from him, something more important than anything else they had ever shared and that included some dark moments.

 

Danny rubbed his hands over his hair. “This is not an easy situation, okay? This is not a situation where you can just rush off and shoot someone.”

 

“Then what sort of situation is this, Danny?"

 

“This is a liver situation.”

 

“A liver situation? That’s all you’ve got to say about this?” Steve didn’t hide his anger. “I know you gave me your liver, you don’t have to keep reminding me.”

 

“In this case, I do. See when I selflessly gave you my liver I hadn’t realised there were consequences.”

 

“Like what? I inherit your bad attitude and hatred of pineapple?”

 

“No,” Danny sighed. “Okay, let’s try this again.”

 

There as a long pause and Steve could feel the seconds tick by. He just kept looking at Danny, waiting. He trusted Danny with his life, had literally trusted Danny with his life, what was it Danny couldn’t trust him with? What was holding him back Danny Williams the one person who always spoke what was on his mind?

 

Steve was so wrapped in speculation that he almost missed Danny’s quiet voice so out of character for him.

 

“I am not a human being,” Danny said.

 

“Okay, well you could have fooled me because I’m looking at you right now all naked,” Steve waved a hand for emphasis, “and you look human to me.”

 

“Yes, I look human and yes this body is human but me I’m basically... magic.”

 

Steve would have laughed if not for the serious look on Danny’s face. “Magic? Like rabbits out of hat, card tricks magic?”

 

“More like interdimensional beings magic.”

 

“Are you sure you haven’t been spending too much time with Jerry?”

 

“Let me explain this, Steven. What you call reality is just a small aspect of reality. There are layers to reality like dimensions and some of these layers have a kind of energy you’d call magic. And some of these magical layers have magical beings living in them and some of these magical beings end up taking on human form, inhabiting a human body, including all aspects of being a human such as having a liver,” Danny said, waving his arms about and talking with his hands as usual.

 

“Are you being serious?”

 

“Yes, I am being serious. When I gave you my liver I forgot that said liver is used to living in a human body inhabited by a magic being and when it found itself in a human body without a magic being it didn’t feel right so it pulled magic from these other realities to start making itself a magic being to go in the human body it found itself in.”

 

“Are you saying your liver has turned me into some weird magic being?” Steve could hardly believe that Daniel ‘sceptic of everything except the occasional psychic’ Williams was talking about magic and interdimensional beings.

 

“Essentially yes. Now this would have taken time and you wouldn’t have noticed it. Given your lifelong death wish you might even have died before you were converted. What my higher up colleagues did last night was rip open a hole which let in a lot of magical energy which converted you, Steve McGarrett human being with a death wish, into magical being Steve McGarrett who has no idea how dangerous his life has just gotten. “

 

“Okay,” said Steve, which was about the only word he could muster. If anyone else had told him all that he would have laughed it off but Danny, he believed Danny heart and soul. That the fact he was feeling very, very strange and wasn’t sure if he could even trust his senses. Maybe he was dreaming but something told him he wasn’t. Still this was... a lot to take in.

 

“That’s it? Just okay?”

 

“Give me a minute to process this, Danny, all right?”

 

Danny’s reply was surprisingly soft. “Okay.”

 

“Just okay?”

 

“Just, do what you need to do to think about this. I’m going to put some pants on.”

 

Steve watched as Danny got off the bed. He sort of missed the warm feeling next to him. He watched, a little guiltily perhaps, as Danny fumbled with his underwear. Steve could have sworn that Danny seemed to be glowing. He had spent more time than he cared to admit to looking at his partner, memorising everything from Danny’s hairline down to his socks, well as much as he could but he got the feeling only now was he actually seeing Danny.

 

There was a feeling of gratitude that despite everything Steve finally got to see this. He never would have had there not been ‘a liver issue’. He didn’t care that he was naked and looking at another man like that. It felt surprisingly natural. It wasn’t like the fantasies that Steve would never admit to having, it felt better than that because it was as if reality had been heightened for him and the real Danny was amazing.

 

He hadn’t realised Danny was looking at him until he met a slightly annoyed glare. Danny had now put on his pants and even his shirt, though it remained unbuttoned. Steve was a bit disappointed that Danny was obviously a lot more self-conscious about the situation than he was.

 

“You’re glowing,” Steve said, waving a hand in Danny’s direction. “It was distracting. Have you always done that?”

 

Danny sighed. “Yes, Steve, I have always been glowing but human beings don’t notice because they don’t have the capacity to notice.”

 

“It’s a good look on you,” Steve said. It was. Danny glowing just seemed to fit. Steve would never throw the word beautiful out in front of his partner but that’s what he thought.

 

“Yeah, it doesn’t look bad on you either,” Danny said, smiling.

 

 Steve looked down at his own bare skin and Danny was right. He hadn’t noticed at first. It was a different glow to Danny’s, at least that was how it felt. And it was odd it was like his feelings and his vision were mixed up. Most of his senses felt mixed up. He blinked again.

 

“You’ll get used to it,” Danny said. “It all feels mixed up right now but it will get better, Steve.”

 

“It’s not bad, Danny, just a bit disorientating. And it’s no worse than anything we got in training.”

 

“I know you’re super SEAL but this isn’t an assault course you have to get through. Just relax. Not that you know the meaning of the word,” Danny muttered. “I’m going to go make us pancakes. You need to eat breakfast.”

 

“So, we’re having pancakes for breakfast?” Not that Steve objected but it just seemed such a normal comment when the rest of his world had been turned on its axis.

 

“You need to rebuild your energy, Steven, so yes we’re having pancakes.”

 

“And are these going to be magic pancakes?” Steve asked.

 

“No, ones you make in the kitchen using milk and flour and eggs and butter and sugar.”

 

For some reason Steve hadn’t been expecting that answer. Normal routine had been resumed though Steve felt he was never going to be normal again. More to the point he was never going to see Danny as just normal again, not that Danny had ever been ‘just’ anything. “So, you can’t actually conjure food out of thin air?”

 

“If you mean create food out of thin air, then no, I can’t. There are rules about this works.”

 

“But could you, if you wanted to?”

 

Danny put his hand on his brow before sighing. “Why does it come down to food with you? There are plenty of questions you could be asking me and you want to know about pancakes?”

 

“It was a sensible question, Danny, you being able to conjure food from thin air would have been useful to know. That intel could have given me an idea of what else you could conjure.”

 

“Firstly, that would not have been intel it would have been information, let’s use English. Secondly let’s go over this now because I don’t want to spend the rest of day debating pancakes with you.” Danny had that ‘I am about to explain something stance’ that Steve knew well. “I cannot conjure food from thin air. I could conjure food from magical energy but that messes up my magic reserves and gives me stomach pains which is unpleasant and so I don’t bother. I could pull food from somewhere else but people notice that happens and the rule number one is never let humans know we exist so I can’t do that.”

 

“But you could do that? If you had to?” Steve asked. He wanted to know everything Danny could do but that was going to take time. Little pieces of information could be extrapolated upon and expanded.

 

“If you are thinking of trying, Steve, please, don’t.”

 

The idea was tempting but for now Steve just quietly filed the information away. “I don’t want to try it, Danny! I was just speculating.”

 

“I’ve seen you speculate and it usually ends in explosions. You stay here I’m going to the kitchen,” Danny headed to the doorway.

 

Steve couldn’t let Danny just leave. He felt like Danny’s presence kept him anchored a bit better. Already as Danny moved away Steve could feel something change and feel himself come unstuck like paper with not quite enough glue on it. He got up out of the bed. “Stay here? Why? I can help I know where the…”

 

As he tried to take a couple of steps but he couldn’t. The floor suddenly seemed slippery and he couldn’t keep his balance. Steve felt as if he were falling in slow motion, everything deemed to tip around him as he tried to stop himself from falling but he couldn’t get a grip. He reached out for the bed but for some reason it too felt slippery and Steve couldn’t get a grip on that either.

 

It seemed to take minutes before he fell onto the floor which seemed to become more solid and less slippery as he made contact and landed unceremoniously on his butt. He blinked and noticed that Danny was no longer in the doorway. Was he in the kitchen? Had he heard Steve fall? Steve felt a bit sick and wasn’t sure if he could easily get up. He didn’t think he had the energy.

 

Then in the literal blink of an eye Danny was there and had his arms around him. “Danny?”

 

“Okay, let’s get you back to bed,” Danny said.

 

The room seemed to spin slightly but then Steve found himself on the bed, Danny’s arms still around him. “What just happened?”

 

“You just slipped,” Danny said, rubbing gentle circles on Steve’s back.

 

“I know but how did we end up here?” Steve asked. The weird feeling was subsiding and as Danny rubbed his back he could feel himself feeling less drained. Must be some weird magic effect.

 

“No, I mean you did slip, but you slipped.”

 

Steve got the feeling that Danny didn’t mean losing his balance. “Okay, so I slipped? What do you mean I slipped?”

 

Danny stopped rubbing his back and sat next to Steve on the bed. At least he was making eye contact. “All round us are different magical layers, different realities. You can now move between them which you just did without even thinking which is going to increase my stress level exponentially.”

 

“It didn’t look any different. It looked like the same room,” Steve said. He wondered if that was why everything had felt so strange. But it still looked like the exact same room, even down to the disturbed bed covers.

 

“Which is the idea,” Danny said. “There are ones just beneath the surface and physically they look the same but they aren’t. You’ll learn to feel it. You want to know what happened to your gun? Carol probably slipped it.”

 

“So everyone can slip? People and things?”

 

“Not everyone. Humans can be slipped but it uses a lot of magic reserves and you end up with a dead human. Magic people yes, we all can. Some people are better at it than others.”

 

Steve didn’t think he would one of the ones who were particularly good at it. “Are you good at it?”

 

“As good as I need to be,” Danny said. Steve recognised the modesty on his partner’s voice.

 

“And just now when ended up back in bed? What was that?”

 

“When we slip we can also move location, like a shortcut.”

 

“A shortcut? How much of a shortcut? How far can you travel like that?”

 

Danny gave a weak smile. “If I wanted to I could slip back to Jersey but the further you go the more energy you use and there are better things to use it for than to save on an airfare.”

 

“Like what? I mean you could go and visit your parents. You’re always telling me you miss Jersey and you could go back anytime you wanted but you don’t?” Steve couldn’t understand that. If it was so easy for Danny to travel home like that why wasn’t he doing it more often? He could literally slip home for a few hours and slip back in less time than it took to fly. Wouldn’t that be something Danny should be taking advantage of?

 

Danny started pacing. “I have responsibilities, okay? I can’t afford to waste energy and it would be a lot of energy because slipping is not one the talents I have been blessed with.”

 

“Well what are your talents? I mean you must have some, right?” Steve felt that Danny was hiding quite a bit about his abilities. Danny was probably so used to keeping them a secret he didn’t even realise he was barely hinting at them to Steve. He probably also didn’t realise that Steve wanted to hear all about them.

 

“Yes, Steve I do,” Danny paused. “I’ve got to call Chin.”

 

Steve saw the subject changing. “Just to avoid answering me?”

 

“No, because you,” Danny pointed at Steve as if for emphasis, “are not going into work until you can control your magic and I am not going into work because somebody has got to teach you and that somebody is me,” Danny pointed at himself.

 

“Because you’re the most qualified?”

 

“No, because it was my liver,” Danny said to end that conversation, for now at least. He headed to the door. “Okay, I’m going to call Chin then you are going to put some pants on and we are going to go downstairs, walking, like normal human beings, and after breakfast we’re going to have to start working out how to stop you from breaking every magical rule in the book.”

 

“So, I should just wait here?”

 

“Yes, don’t move until I get back because I’m not risking you slipping again.”

 

Steve watched Danny leave. It was strange he knew more about Danny than ever and yet there were still so many questions, so many things he didn’t know but desperately wanted to. He’d always harboured a desire to know as much about Danny as possible and now he had the chance, though he’d barely scratched the surface. He didn’t want Danny to feel like he had to hide anything from him.

 

Lying back in bed Steve felt himself relax. He wasn’t sure how much time had passed. There was still no sign of Danny but Steve was sure he wouldn’t be long. Steve closed his eyes. He was acutely aware of where Danny was if he focused. Danny was downstairs, pacing by the window. He could hear Danny’s voice but couldn’t make out the words. Steve strained to try and get closer to hear them.

 

He felt something shift around him, it was a strange feeling. It felt like when he slipped before only this time there wasn’t the confused discomfort. It was more akin got slipping into a warm bath, there was still a disconnect but Steve wasn’t overly aware of it. The sounds around had changed though, Danny sounded louder, closer somehow, so Steve opened his eyes to find himself on the couch downstairs with Danny, cell phone in hand, glaring at him.

 

“I’ll talk to you later,” Danny said, ending the call. “What did I say, Steve? I said we were going to walk down the stairs like normal human beings.”

 

“I didn’t actually mean to do this,” Steve said, defending himself, “but it felt better this time.”

 

“You’re still putting pants on,” Danny said, as he stomped off toward the kitchen.

 

This time Steve did the normal human thing and used the stairs.

 

Half an hour later they were both sat down at the table eating pancakes. Steve found he was extremely hungry. He’d already had three stacks and was happily eating a fourth. He was just glad Danny was keeping them coming even if the kitchen currently looked like it had suffered some sort of flour related bomb attack. 

 

“These are good pancakes, Danny,” Steve said, his mouth full of pancakes and syrup.

 

“I’m glad you approve,” Danny said, sliding a couple more onto Steve’s plate.

 

“Are you sure you didn’t use magic, because these taste so good this couldn’t have been your cooking,” Steve smiled as he swallowed his mouthful and loaded up his fork again.

 

“Some of us can do more than just heat up a pack of food rations,” Danny replied. He gazed at Steve, as if he was sizing him up, but Steve didn’t feel uncomfortable. “At least you’re looking better.”

 

Steve paused his fork just before it reached his mouth. “Better than what?”

 

“You’ve got a healthier glow,” Danny said, waving his free hand toward Steve.

 

“Thank you, Daniel.”

 

Steve ate the rest of his pancakes. Danny joined him opposite and ate a few himself. At least Danny was eating, Steve thought. His partner needed breakfast too and had Steve not been so ravenous he would have offered Danny some off his own plate.

 

The companionable silence that developed as they ate was suddenly halted by a noise at the door. Steve was instantly on his feet. He was wary of anything intruding into the little bubble he and Danny were currently in.

 

“What was that?”

 

Danny got to his feet but more slowly and he took a last bite of pancake before he did so. “That was a doorbell, it’s your house I’m sure you knew that.”

 

“I’m not expecting anyone,” Steve said.

 

Danny walked past him not looking worried at all. “Not you’re not. I am.”

 

“Who?” Steve asked as he followed Danny to the door.

 

He soon got his answer as the door opened and there stood Danny’s nephew, Eric. If Danny was magic, then presumably that meant Eric was as well. He had a glow about him but it wasn’t a glow like Danny’s. It was not as vibrant to Steve’s eyes. It was like noticing someone had a certain eye colour without noticing how pretty the eyes were. Steve recognised Eric was glowing but not like he saw Danny’s beautiful glow.

 

Eric wasted no time stepping across the threshold, he was practically bouncing as Danny closed the door behind him. “Hey, Uncle D, I am so glad you called. This is amazing.”

 

“Hi, E-train,” Steve said.

 

That stopped Eric in his tracks. He hadn’t seemed to have noticed Steve before but now he was looking at Steve like he couldn’t quite believe what exactly he was seeing. “Hey, man, wow, you weren’t kidding it actually happened.”

 

“Yes, it actually happened, Eric,” Danny muttered.

 

Eric was grinning. “So, I don’t have to keep the magic stuff secret because he’s one of us now?” he asked, turning to Danny.

 

“This does not mean you can act like an idiot around Steve and it does not mean you can show off because rule number one still matters,” Danny said, holding up a finger. “Outside of these four walls are normal human beings going about their everyday lives and we don’t change that. Do we have an understanding?”

 

“Yes, we do, but come on, how cool is this?” Eric asked opening his arms and indicating Steve. “Someone’s who’s actually been converted. This is incredible.”

 

Steve was beginning to suspect Danny had perhaps downplayed what this really meant. “This isn’t a normal thing that happens?”

 

“Conversions are rare. I mean obviously, it’s mostly because of organ donation and most of us don’t donate organs,” Eric paused and lowered his voice. “I mean it’s practically illegal.”

 

That was something Danny hadn’t revealed. Given how strict his partner was with just human rules Steve could hardly believe that Danny would do something like that. “You broke your own laws to save my life?”

 

“I’ve broken enough of the human ones to do that so it wasn’t that big of a deal,” Danny said.

 

Of course Steve didn’t think so and it appeared Eric agreed.

 

“Come on, Uncle D, it was really a big deal. I mean the last person who did it was…”

 

Danny held a hand up. “Okay, shut up. Let’s back to why you’re here.”

 

“Why is he here?” Steve asked.

 

“Because we are about to test your magical boundaries and I need another trained magical adult in case something goes wrong. Unfortunately, the only one I could get here with short notice was... Eric.” Danny sounded apologetic.

 

“Hey, dude, you know I’m good at this stuff,” Eric said, puffing out his chest just a little but enough that Steve noticed.

 

“I do, now you are actually using your talents for sensible things instead of seeing up girls’ skirts,” Danny replied.

 

“I only did that once,” Eric paused and looked at the floor. “Well, half a dozen times but that was years ago.”

 

Sensing another Williams family arguement about to erupt Steve decided to take the conversation back to the reason Eric was here in the first place. “So, what might go wrong?”

 

Danny gave a glare to Eric. “Well, you could turn out to be very powerful with electromagnetic fields and blow out the power grid of Oahu.”

 

“Is that likely to even happen? I mean I don’t feel like I could do that. Aren’t you just being paranoid?” Steve had seen some ridiculous things but honestly that seemed farfetched. Slowly Steve was beginning to recognise the magic that now made up what he was but it didn’t feel like that much. He didn’t think he was holding onto the magic equivalent of a EMP.

 

“With magic, you can never be too paranoid, trust me,” Danny said. There was that tone again, as if there was something that he wasn’t quite saying.

 

Eric piped up. “Yeah there was this one time Uncle D blew out half the street lights in Jersey. Of course, he was just a kid but my grandparents knew then that…”

 

Danny help his hand up. “We don’t need to hear this, Eric, okay? You keep on the side-lines. You are protecting the perimeter. Throw out a few shields and make sure nothing slips through, okay? That is your job.”

 

“Okay,” Eric said. He was looking oddly at his Uncle Danny and he kept glancing at Steve. It seemed that Eric too was well aware that Danny was holding information back from Steve. Perhaps that would be useful later, Steve thought.

 

“Before we start I’ve got one question, Eric,” Steve said.

 

“Shoot, dude. I mean, Steve. Or whatever I should call you.”

 

“Can you conjure food out of thin air Danny thinks it’s not something I should even attempt but…”

 

Eric spoke before Steve had even finished the question. “Yeah, dude, you don’t want to try it. I conjured a chocolate cake out of magical energy when I was eleven. I had stomach ache for a week after eating it.” Eric rubbed his stomach absentmindedly as he did so.

 

“Like I told you it’s really not something you should try. You should just stop thinking about it,” Danny said, heading to the door. 

 

Steve immediately followed. “Okay, so let’s move on. “

 

“Eric, go fix the perimeter,” Danny said, waving his hand at the wall near the door.

 

“You got it, Uncle D,” Eric said.

 

As Steve watched the air around Eric seemed to shimmer and distort, like a liquid mirror it rippled around and outward. In less than a blink of an eye Eric wasn’t standing there anymore. Steve guessed that was what slipping looked like to an outside observer. It was a strange thing to witness. It didn’t help that his vision seemed to split into two. Part of it saw the distortion but the rest did not.

 

“So, Eric is magic,” Steve said, still staring at the empty space where Eric used to be. He waved his arm through the air seeing if he could detect anything but he couldn’t.

 

“He’s my nephew of course he is,” Danny said, as if it was obvious. “He’s my pure nephew too.”

 

Steve turned to face his partner. “Pure nephew?”

 

“Yes, I know how that sounds but that’s the term we use. Some of us get born like human beings and some of us, like Eric, come into being in... other ways,” Danny says waving his hands to indicate these other ways.

 

“What sort of other ways? Are you telling me your sister, what, magicked him?” Steve wasn’t sure how magic worked, could magic be used for something like that? Eric seemed, well perhaps not normal, but he didn’t seem like he’d been conjured out of thin air.

 

“My sister is very talented and thought as a kid she’d love to have a baby so she channelled a bunch of magical energy that became Eric,” Danny said.

 

“You can’t conjure food but you can conjure a baby?”

 

“My sister didn’t conjure Eric up. What she did was make a portal through which a baby magical energy being escaped into the human world and ended up conjuring a human body,” Danny said.

 

“That explains a lot about your nephew.”

 

Danny smiled slightly. “Yes, yes it does.”

 

There was a pause as Steve sensed that Danny wasn’t going to be any more forthcoming, still his curiosity was piqued. “What about Gracie and Charlie? Are they…?”

 

“Yes, they are magic beings in human form but unlike their cousin they got their bodies the erm, old fashioned way,” Danny said blushing ever so slightly. It made him glow a little brighter too.

 

“So, Rachel is human? Or not?”

 

Danny sighed. “Rachel is complicated.”

 

Steve wanted to ask Danny more about this. How was Rachel complicated? Was she human? Did she know about Danny? How much had he kept from her? Steve was rapidly understanding that very few people in Danny’s life knew the whole truth about what he was or even came close. For someone not shy about sharing his feelings Danny did hold back a lot of himself.

 

Unfortunately, at that moment Eric reappeared, the shimmering now appearing in reverse.

 

“Are you guys ready yet? I’ve shielded the entire perimeter. It’s going to take something strong to get in or out,” Eric said.

 

“Right, let’s go, “Danny said, he held out his hand to Steve.  “Steve, hold my hand.”

 

“Why do I need to hold your hand?” Steve asked. Not that he wouldn’t like to hold Danny’s hand but context was important.

 

“Because we’re going to slip and after your reaction last time and then your random slip earlier I need to keep an eye on you.”

 

“Okay, let’s do this,” Steve said, putting his hand in Danny’s. He gave him a smile. He was happy to be happy doing this, especially happy to be doing this with Danny.

 

“Awesome,” Eric said.

 

Danny rolled his eyes. “Eric, go.” Then he turned to Steve. “Ready?”

 

“Yeah, I’m ready, Danno.”

 

The Danno had been intentional. Nothing encouraged Danny like a bit of good natured nickname calling.  This time the slip was different, more controlled. It felt so natural that Steve barely noticed the feeling of disconnectedness. It was as easy and natural as blinking. One moment he was standing indoors in his house, the next he was outside. But he was more than outside, there was a change in the air around them, this felt different though Steve would struggle to define exactly how.

 

Danny let go of Steve’s hand and immediately he felt a little more unbalanced. The differences became more pronounced, more obvious. It didn’t feel as welcoming now but more alien.

 

“You know where we are, right?” Danny asked.

 

“We’re on my street,” Steve said, looking around at the recognisable landmarks. “Only this isn’t my street, is it? We’re in one of those layers you talked about?”

 

“Very good,” Danny said, smiling and giving Steve a pat on the arm. “We’re in a layer that means that whatever happens your neighbours aren’t going to notice it. This is a safe place where you can practice.”

 

“Then why is Eric guarding the perimeter?” Steve asked.

 

“Because we’re not the only ones who use this layer.”

 

Again, there was no further explanation from Danny which frustrated Steve. “And you don’t want to elaborate on that? I trust you, Danny, but you’ve got to give me more than that.”

 

“I don’t know how much of this you’re going to believe until you see it.”

 

Given what Steve had already experienced that seemed impossible. “It’s that crazy?”

 

“Yes, it is that crazy.”

 

“Okay.” Steve was willing to wait and see what happened. “So, what are we doing? Admiring the view?”

 

“We are going to test what sort of magic you’ve got, what sort of talents. Easiest way to do that is to punch so you’ll enjoy this.”

 

“Punch what?”

 

“Punch with your magic not your physical fist and see what reaction you get.”

 

“How do I do that?” Steve asked. Punching he could do but punching with magic using powers he wasn’t aware he had sounded a lot trickier.

 

“Okay, watch me first,” Danny said. “Pay attention. Are you watching?”

 

“I’m watching, Danny, I have eyes,” Steve replied.

 

Danny took several steps away from Steve and Steve stepped back a bit too guessing that Danny wanted the space. He had seen Danny punch people plenty of times. He knew exactly how his partner punched but this was different. Danny’s fist was loose, relaxed almost not the kind of tight fist that he expected when Danny punched someone.

 

In fact, looking at Danny his whole body was pretty loose. It was relaxed almost, quite different to the tenseness Danny usually showed. He moved his neck around, cracking to get rid of the tension. Then in one fluid motion Danny raised his hand and then with his loose fist wound up and punched the air.

 

As Steve watched it seemed as if the punch continued beyond the physical fist Danny had made. He could have sworn Danny glowed harder too. A wave of power seemed to emanate from it, like a wave crashing through the air. The wave moved down the street and as it did so it seemed to distort the physical space around it. Then it opened out and hit a house at the end of the street. The house seemed to dissemble itself in seconds. Each piece unattached itself quickly and easily. The pieces suspended in mid-air for several moments and then rearranged themselves as they floated down toward the ground. The house was transformed into piles of timber.

 

Steve looked back at Danny who looked just as relaxed as before, his glow had died back to normal, as if he hadn’t just unleashed enough power to level a house. “Wow that was… that was amazing, Danny. You just punched but you… did that.”

 

“Yes, I did.”

 

“How?” Steve asked, still in awe. He had no idea Danny was capable of that.

 

“I punched with the magical me. You can feel it, the separation between your human body and your magic one?”

 

Steve frowned. “I think so. Like when I slipped I felt disconnected.”

 

“Yes. You need to punch with your magic self through your human body,” Danny said, swaying and moving his arms in a forward motion.

 

“So, I should just try it?”

 

“That’s why we here, so yes you should.”

 

Steve wasn’t sure. Danny had made it look effortless, easy. Still he had training, maybe not in magical punching but he had discipline, he could do this. He tried to mirror Danny’s stance. He looked forward and made a fist. He tried to keep it looser than normal though it felt odd. Steve drew it back and then moved it forward, trying to feel that magical/physical separation. However, as he moved his fist and tried to punch he found he didn’t feel like he had any momentum.

 

The movement of a punch was there but nothing happened. Steve had punched thin air with no result to show for it.

 

“Okay, what did I do wrong?” Steve asked, turning to Danny

 

“You’re thinking about it too much. You need to let go.”

 

Steve frowned. “Letting go in a combat situation is against everything I’ve been trained to do.”

 

“This is not a combat situation!” Danny replied. “This is practice. Take your time. You’re not trying to destroy anything you’re just testing yourself.”

 

“I should just try again?”

 

“Yes, try again, don’t force it, just relax.”

 

Steve tried to take Danny’s suggestion to heart. He slowed his breathing down, tried to keep his muscles loose and less tense. It was hard to relax not knowing what was going to happen. This wasn’t a situation that had any predictability about it and that meant Steve was out of his depth.

 

“You can do this, Steve, just try it,” Danny said.

 

Bolstered by his partner’s faith in him Steve tried again. He drew back his arm but more gently this time. He tried to go with the feeling of disconnectedness he could feel inside. He threw his arm out in a punch but again it felt like his magic self just didn’t follow through. The movement was entirely with his human body.

 

“How did you make it look so easy?” Steve asked Danny.

 

“Practice,” Danny replied. “Lots of practice. Try again.”

 

Over and over Steve tried but he couldn’t quite get it to work. He could feel his magic self bubbling under the surface but he couldn’t bring it forth. Maybe he was too attached to his physical self but that was the only self he’d ever known. Being magic inside was different and he was struggling to go with it.

 

Every time he punched it was as if he wasn’t even making the motion. It didn’t feel real, presumably he had to make it real for any sort of magic power to happen. He just didn’t know how.

 

“This isn’t working, Danny,” Steve said.

 

Danny sighed and rubbed his eyes. “Okay, let’s try this a different way.”

 

Steve wondered what other way they could try it.  Then he felt Danny come up behind him. Then Danny took hold of Steve’s arm. It felt better immediately. The weird jagged disconnect seemed to reduce. Then Danny, with both their arms outstretched, slipped his hand into Steve’s.

 

“This time we punch together and you pay attention to how it feels. Then you might remember when you have to do it on your own.”

 

Their fingers were loosely entwined but Steve didn’t feel the need to tighten them. This felt much improved. They both seemed to be glowing brighter too, their glows the same colour and strength. “I’m ready,” he said.

 

Danny carefully pulled their arms back. Steve went with the movement so easily. It was if he knew exactly where their arms were to the millisecond and how Danny was going to move them next. It was one fluid movement as they moved together.

 

Once their arms were back the forward momentum seemed to build. Everything slowed down and now, now Steve could finally push through with magic. There was no longer any barrier. He felt something brush against him, almost as if he could feel Danny’s magical body against his, though was that even possible?

 

There was no time to ponder that as their arms moved forward in unison and Steve felt power push out of him and into Danny and back again. Something was spiralling strongly between then and when the movement of a punch was finally complete that power burst out with such force that it seemed like the whole street shook.

 

This wave of power was brighter, it was different to Danny’s, maybe because it was both of theirs. It pushed down the street like a tsunami wave. This time every house seemed to dissemble and then rearrange itself in mid-air before moving down the street in a procession. Entire houses simply vanished in the wake of their punched energy. In a matter of what was probably seconds the entire street had changed, only trees and plants remained.

 

“Wow. Did we just do that?” Steve asked.

 

Even Danny sounded shocked. “Yes, we did.”

 

“You didn’t expect that, did you?” Steve asked. If Danny had he’d have liked some sort of warning.

 

“No, I didn’t,” Danny moved back from Steve more quickly than Steve would have liked, his glow dimming as he did so. “You remember how it felt?”

 

“Yes, I do.” Steve wasn’t going to forget that feeling very quickly.

 

“So, try again.”

 

This time Steve knew what to do. He simply focused on Danny. That took his concentration away from himself and somehow that made it easier. All he had to do was reach out as if he was reaching to Danny. He punched forward.

 

This time the results weren’t dramatic. The wave of power was smaller and hit a few of the fences. Those fences were demolished but that was all. “It worked, Danny! It worked.”

 

“Of course it worked. Go ahead, try another.”

 

“You’re worse than a drill sergeant you know that?”

 

“Come on, McGarrett, I want to see if you can punch that fence back.”

 

So, it was possible to bring things back as well. That was interesting. Steve tried a few more punches. Some were wholly destructive but some seemed to move things about. Several mailboxes shifted position. It was hard to tell what each punch was going to do because they all felt similar.

 

However, they had also taken their toll. Steve bent over and put his head down. “I feel a bit dizzy,” he said. 

 

“Because you’re not pulling hard enough from your reserves.”

 

Steve had no idea what these reserves were. He guessed that one of the feelings he was experiencing represented those reserves of energy but he couldn’t identify which one at all.

 

“Can you show me how to do that?” he asked Danny.

 

There was a pause as Danny looked worried? Scared? Concerned? Certainly, he was hesitating and Steve wondered why. What could be bad about helping Steve to pull from reserves of energy? Eventually though Danny agreed to help. “Yes, I can.”

 

Again, Danny came up behind him and this time put two hands on Steve’s shoulders.

 

“Close your eyes,” Danny said.

 

“Why?”

 

“Because the easiest way to do this is to show you a visual metaphor,” Danny said. “Which means showing you on another plane without switching realities and yes I know that makes no sense.”

 

“I’ll pick up the terminology eventually,” Steve said. The feel of Danny’s hands on his shoulders was actually very nice. He felt much more comfortable like this.

 

“All right, are your eyes closed?” Danny asked.

 

“Yes, Danny,” Steve said, closing his eyes as he spoke.

 

Once he’d done so though he had an image in his head of blackness but in the blackness there were two rivers, golden flowing rivers one next to him and the other further away. It wasn’t something he’d imagined so he guessed this was Danny’s doing. Then he noticed that Danny was standing next to the farther river and holding out an arm. The golden river then seemed to flow upward and into Danny, going up his arm. Then Danny dropped his arm and the flow stopped.

 

Looking down to the river nearest to him Steve held out an arm but nothing happened. He glanced across at Danny who wiggled his fingers. Maybe he had to will the magic river to come to him then. Steve concentrated and slowly, much more slowly than Danny had, the river flowed up to his hand and then along his arm. It tingled and was pleasantly warm.

 

After a while Steve dropped his arm and opened his eyes to find he was in the street. Though he didn’t feel right. He felt nauseous and full, as if he had overeaten, but he hadn’t eaten anything at all. He also thought he was glowing a bit more than he should.

 

“I feel sick,” he said. His head throbbed too. It was an unpleasant feeling.

 

“That’s because you pulled a bit much,” Danny said, putting a steadying hand on Steve’s back. Steve immediately felt better. “Punch a few times, you need to burn some off,” Danny said.

 

He just about felt up to punching so he did what Danny said. This time punching seemed to do more. Several trees shifted and then floated in mid-air before toppling down and then one smashed into several pieces. A few fences shifted across the road and Steve now felt better. He still quite full but not as sick as he had before.

 

Steve turned to his partner. “Thanks, that worked, Danny.”

 

Danny shrugged. “You’re welcome. Now when you want to pull on your reserves just picture what we did before. You don’t even have to close your eyes. You’ll need a visual representation before you’re comfortable enough with making a conduit to your reserves.”

 

“And what are my reserves?”

 

“Okay so you are made of a certain type of magic. Like you have a physical body. Your reserves are like the food you eat to keep going. Except your reserves are unique to you and they get replenished from the magical realm where we come from originally.”

 

“So, every time we use magic we’re using the reserves?” Steve guessed. He had been using magic several times that morning so it made sense. The energy had felt a bit different to his magical body but not that different.

 

“Yes, and they take time to replenish. Which is why you don’t want to use too much at once.”

 

“Which is why you don’t slip to Jersey.”

 

“Exactly. So now let’s try something other than punching.”

 

“We can do more than punching?”

 

“There’s a lot of hand waving in magic,” Danny said, waving his hands around as he said it.

 

“That explains a lot about you,” Steve said.

 

“Very funny,” Danny replied.

 

Whatever Danny was going to say next was interrupted as there was a rumble and the ground seemed to be shaking. It felt like a localised earthquake under Steve’s feet. The road a few hundred yards in front of them seemed to be rising up like a mound before it burst open and out came a large, rather scary, creature.

 

It was bright red. It looked like a giant lizard, except that it had tiny wings at the top near its head. The head itself was fearsome and packed with vicious looking long fangs. Its mouth was open and it was emitting some weird hissing sounds, hissing sounds that were loud enough to be roars. It had tiny eyes that seemed to be glowing green and it twisted and turned its way out of the hole, getting longer it’s thick snake like body looking grotesque.

 

“Danny, what the hell is that?” Steve asked.

 

“That is what I was afraid would happen,” Danny said, sounding remarkably calm. “There are different types of magical beings there are us, the good guys, and there are the monsters.”

 

“That’s a magical monster?” Steve asked, feeling he was stating the obvious. The thing was looking at him and Steve didn’t like that look. He stepped back.

 

“Yes, it is,” Danny turned away and yelled.  “Eric! Is that perimeter secure?”

 

Out of nowhere Eric materialised. He looked a lot more shocked than Danny did. “Holy... that’s a level seven wyrm.”

 

“Yes, I know what it is. Can you make sure it can’t make a quick exit?”

 

“I’m on it,” Eric said and he disappeared as quickly as he had previously appeared.

 

“What can I do, Danny?” Steve asked.

 

Danny was already moving forward, toward the creature, starting to glow brighter already. “You can stand behind me.”

 

As Steve watched Danny waved his arm about and what looked like a fireball headed toward the creature, the wyrm or whatever Eric had called it. It impacted the creature but that didn’t seem to stop it. Then Danny waved his arm through the air and it looked like a golden slice hit the creature, causing it recoil a little. Danny punched and a blast of bright magic seemed to hit the creature in the face. It roared louder.

 

It moved forward and Danny was still moving his arms and throwing magical energy its way. Steve thought perhaps Danny had pounded the creature but it didn’t seem to be stopping. That was when he decided he had to do something He could feel his magic self getting restless wanting to reach out and help Danny.

 

Steve didn’t know much but he had learnt to go with his magic based instincts where Danny was concerned. Time seemed to slow as he walked to Danny. He could see Danny was still struggling firing off magical energy at the creature who at least seemed to be weakening but so was Danny. Steve reached his side and reached out to touch Danny’s shoulder.

 

Danny turned in surprise but he didn’t say anything. As he touched Danny Steve felt himself getting stronger, he could feel Danny getting stronger. In his mind’s eye, he was pulling from his river and Danny was pulling from his. They glowed brighter together. Then it felt like the rivers were merging, as if there was only one reserve they were pulling from together and they shared it. 

 

In tandem the two of them reached out and punched together, their movement completely synchronised. Two waves of magic were released, though it was hard to tell which came from who. The first wave hit the creature, caused a massive gash across its throat and the second wave pushed it back so hard it fell back and vanished.

 

The world was suddenly quiet. The road looked normal, no sign that a magical monster had even tried breaking out of it. Steve kept his hand on Danny’s shoulder a little longer. He had felt something then, something deep between them. His magic self had felt like it was part of something bigger.

 

“Are you okay?” he asked Danny.

 

“Yes I am. And you’re an idiot,” Danny said. “And thank you.”

 

“What did I do?” Steve asked. “I mean I did something.”

 

“You shifted it. “

 

“Is that like slipping?”

 

“No, it’s more permanent and combined with what I just did to it it’s not going to be coming back anytime soon,” Danny said. He was grinning now. Then without any warning he pulled Steve into a brief but fierce hug. “You did good.”

 

As the hug ended Steve still lingered in Danny’s personal space. “Well it was good practice, right?”

 

“Just not the sort of practice I was going for but yeah.”

 

The two of them laughed, those laughs you let out after life threatening situations because there was nothing else you could do.

 

“Hey, it’s gone,” Eric said, as he suddenly appeared. “Sorry, Uncle D, I didn’t think a level seven wyrm would even be around here or I would have made the barrier stronger.”

 

“It’s okay, Eric, you couldn’t have known. And you got the perimeter covered so thank you,” Danny said. Steve noted the pride in his voice, Eric had done a good job.

 

“Told you I was good at this,” Eric said, grinning. “So, what talents does Steve have?”

 

“It looks like Steve’s got some talent with slipped and shifting. His primary is defensive which is ironic when you think about it.”

 

“Hey, the best form of attack is defence,” Steve said, smiling.

 

“Well I don’t about you guys but I could use some breakfast. Again,” Eric said.

 

“Pancakes?” Steve asked.

 

“This time you’re cooking,” Danny replied. “Come on.”

 

Steve took the hand Danny was offering and together they walked back to Steve’s house and through a wall to find themselves back in the real world, where the only thing Steve currently had to worry about was if there were still enough ingredients left to make pancakes for the three of them.

 


	2. Chapter 2

Danny was distracted. He could scarcely believe what had just happened. He and Steve had gone far beyond what he would have expected. They had synced they had actually synced. Of course, it was possible, and likely given their shared organ connection, but most syncing took years to develop and even then, there was usually an element of conscious choice about it. This though had felt more primal, deeper than that and that was getting into the realms of fairy tales.

Then of course there had been the way they had just worked together to banish that wyrm. As if the two of them had been doing it all their lives together. Danny had worked with others of his kind to banish a few magical threats but never so easily. If Danny didn’t know better he’d swear he and Steve and been close to an actual merge and that was ridiculous. Danny had never met a merged pair and he’d been at the banishing and enforcement game for much longer than he’d been a cop.

Logically he should have been terrified when that wyrm went after Steve. Danny knew what wyrms were capable of. Bearns might have the fiercer reputation but at least you knew where you stood with them and generally they only attacked when provoked, and magical beings training generally weren’t a provocation. Wyrms were much more dangerous and much more deadly.

Yet Danny had somehow known that he wouldn’t lose Steve. There had been no fear in the way they had attacked together, only confidence, and that was unlike Danny. Normally his confidence was edged with caution but there had been none of that. For that Danny blamed Steve’s influence and it added weight to his, didn’t quite want to believe it, merging theory.

Of course, Steve was acting like he hadn’t just had a brush with death. There he was, eating breakfast like it was any other day as his glow became healthier. Danny couldn’t help looking. Steve’s glow was… well beautiful, not that Danny would ever admit that.

Steve obviously noticed Danny staring. He paused, pancake halfway to his mouth even as he chewed the last bite. “What?”

Danny leaned back in his chair. “You just shifted a level seven wyrm and you’re just sat there eating pancakes.”

“They’re good pancakes,” Steve said, chewing and swallowing his bite.

“Dude, most people would be freaked out by this,” Eric said. He looked surprised as well.

“What’s there to be freaked out about?” Steve asked.

“I don’t know, Steve, what about magic?” Danny asked, feeling the urge to hit his head against the table. “Magical monsters trying to kill you?”

“I’ve been in dangerous situations before, Danny. Okay, so this was a little different but I knew we’d survive, we always do,” Steve said, shrugging.

Danny was pretty sure now the confidence was entirely down to Steve. Apparently, Steve’s faith they would survive as long as they were together still applied in the magical world as much as it had in the human, if not more so. “Your eternal optimism is great and I like it but please, just for me, just admit that none of this is normal.”

“Except it is normal for you, isn’t it?” Steve asked with that gaze that he used on suspects and friends alike when he wanted the truth.

“He’s got you there, Uncle D.”

Danny sighed. “Yes, this is normal for me, it’s been normal for me my entire life but this isn’t normal for you.”

“It is now,” Steve said simply. “You donated your liver, Danny, you made this our normal and I know you didn’t want to tell me but now you can. So, don’t worry about me.”

“It’s kind of a reflex at this point, you know that,” Danny said, feeling a slight smile in spite of himself, before the weight of thing got too much and he stopped. “There’s a lot about this you don’t know. What happened this morning was nothing compared to what is out there. There is stuff in this world that is so crazy sometimes I don’t believe it and this is my normal.”

“Is that why you worry so much? Because there’s a whole other scary world just out of sight?” Steve asked.

Damn his partner was perceptive, but then he always had been. That was why Steve was good at cop work. Now though it was a hindrance because Danny couldn’t tell Steve everything, not yet. “Yes. It is. Good analysis, Dr Freud, and now I have to worry about you being blown up, hit by bullets and eaten by wyrms.”

“What is a wyrm anyway?” Steve asked.

“It’s like if a snake and a dragon made a baby…” Eric began.

Danny was not going to let him finish. “Eric, is there something you can be doing? Like cleaning up in the kitchen?”

“But Uncle D…”

Danny held a hand up. “I do not want Steve getting his magical education from you.”

“Why not?” Eric was practically pouting.

“Because you just described a complicated and dangerous magical creature in terms a pre-schooler would come out with,” Danny said, adding a glare. 

Sighing Eric got up from the table and picked up the dirty plates. “Okay, I’m going.”

“And no cheating. Don’t think I won’t notice,” Danny yelled as Eric headed into the kitchen. 

Eric’s reply was muffled by the all but could still be heard. “You are no fun sometimes, Uncle D.”

Steve cleared his throat. “So, Danny, when a snake and a dragon make a baby…”

“We do not get a wyrm despite what Eric says,” Danny replied. 

“If there are levels some are bigger than others?” Steve asked.

“Bigger and more dangerous yes. Level ten being the worst.”

Steve looked like he finally realised what that meant. “Okay so that one was…”

“Not the worst,” Danny confirmed, noticing that now there was a touch of fear about Steve’s expression. “There are scarier ones than that and yes it keeps me up at night knowing one could go after my kids.”

“Why would it go after Grace and Charlie?” Steve asked, and there was the worry in his voice.

“It feeds on magic but very specific magic, not reserve magic but your actual bodily magic,” Danny said, suppressing a shiver. There was a reason fatalities were the usual outcome if a wyrm attacked. “That’s probably why that one appeared before because to them you’re fresh meat. They prefer new magic hence why they like to try and feed on children.”

There was a pause but then Steve spoke again, quietly. “That’s really messed up, Danny.”

“I know it’s messed up, Steve.”

“But Grace and Charlie they’re safe, right?” There as the worry in Steve’s voice again.

“As safe as they can be living with human beings, yes.” Danny made very, very sure of that. 

“So, Rachel is complicated but human?”

Danny sighed. He really didn’t want to bring his ex-wife into their conversation with all the history that entailed but Steve would be like a dog with a bone otherwise. “One hundred percent human,” Danny paused, not sure if should reveal any more but somehow, he felt maybe he should try opening up to Steve a bit more, after what they had been through. “Her grandfather was one of us.”

“Her grandfather?”

“Yes. He married a human woman, they had a daughter and that was Rachel’s mother. She knows some things about us. Not everything, not even close to everything, but she knows enough,” Danny said. In a way, Rachel not knowing anything about them might have helped their marriage, on the other hand it could have made it worse.

“How are Grace and Charlie magic if Rachel’s human?”

“Because in mixed marriage there’s a fifty-fifty chance that the kid will be a magical being or not. That’s how Rachel knew Charlie had to be my son because he was magic. Stanley does not have a magical bone in his body,” Danny said. He was still bitter about that. Rachel had no idea how much she had endangered their son by keeping Danny from him. Charlie still had issues with his magic and probably always would because he’d spent too long apart from his single magical parent who then gave him bone marrow, bone marrow that came from an adult human body housing a magic being had serious effects for a child unused to magic.

Steve knew nothing about this but his words were still heartfelt. “I’m sorry, man.”

Danny appreciated it. “I know.”

There was a quiet moment and Steve lightly touched Danny’s hand. It felt nice, warm and comforting and Danny allowed the touch, he didn’t pull away. Then the moment was over.

“You talked about education. Is there a book or something I could read?” Steve asked.

“No, there are not books. Book are too dangerous,” Danny said. People still talked in hushed whispers about what the printed word had done to their people generations ago. It had not been pretty.

Steve laughed. “Books? Things you read are dangerous? Are magical people illiterate?”

“No, we are not illiterate we just don’t write stuff down. You write stuff down other people can read it and other people might take advantage.”

“So how do you learn?” Steve asked. “Wait don’t tell me, you use a chalkboard?”

Eric was yelling from the kitchen. “Tell him, Uncle D!”

“Shut up, Eric!”

“Danny, come on it can’t be that bad.”

“It can because it involves physical magical bodily contact,” Danny said. Given how synched to the point of merging he and Steve had got he did not know what distillation of knowledge would do. 

“You do know that what you just said made no sense, right?”

“Yes, it does,” Danny said. “Most children get it from their parent when they’re babies, like Grace did. Charlie was a bit older and you, you are much, much older.”

“Which means what?”

Now there was the question it could mean a hundred things but Danny settled for the safest explanation. “It might make you ill.”

“I can handle it.”

The problem was Danny couldn’t tell Steve the real reason why he was hesitating. Steve had adjusted well and could probably cope with magical sickness if it occurred, but if they were as close as Danny suspected then Steve wouldn’t even get sick. It also meant that he might have to reveal to Steve various feelings that he’d been trying to deny for years but now, now he might not have a choice, and that scared him more than a wyrm ever could.

There was also the chance that Steve would find out what it had really cost Danny to donate that liver. That piece of information needed to remain even more secret than Danny’s feelings because Danny had no idea how Steve would react and in truth he preferred not to think about it.

However, Steve was like this because of him, because of that costly liver donation, and frankly the idea of anyone doing this with Steve made Danny feel ill. It had to be him. He just had to figure out how this could work without letting Steve know about Danny’s real reason for donating that liver.

“Fine, we’ll do it,” Danny conceded, “but Eric’s leaving first.”

“Hey, no fair,” Eric said as he came out of the kitchen.

“You are not staying for this,” Danny said, firmly, using a finger for emphasis. 

“Why can’t he stay?”

There were many, many reasons why Danny didn’t want Eric to be around when he got naked with Steve but he wasn’t going to list them out loud. So, he went for the simplest and easiest excuse. “Because if there are side effects you do not want Eric to be subjected to you throwing up, or worse.”

Eric immediately looked uncomfortable, which had been the idea. “Yeah, actually, dude, I’m going back to work because yeah… I do not want to be around if you make a mess.”

Without saying anything else Eric slipped and disappeared. “Eric, I told you not to slip to work!” Danny yelled, hoping that Eric would hear him, though if he had already slipped the chances were slim.

“Is it really that bad?” Steve asked. Apparently, Eric disappearing made him realise what he might be getting into.

“Are you having second thoughts about this?” Danny asked.

“No, no I’m not. I just don’t want to break my streak.”

“Your streak?” Danny asked, confused.

“Yes, you have a not throwing up streak and so do I. The last time I threw up in this house was 1990 when I had stomach flu. I don’t want to throw up in here again.”

“You might not get a choice. Charlie threw up all over my bed twice and he was a lot younger than you,” Danny pointed out. It had not been pleasant though luckily Charlie had bounced back and he was now where he should be, magical knowledge wise at least.

“Children are more likely to throw up,” Steve reasoned. 

“Okay, maybe you have a point,” Danny conceded. If anyone could will themselves not to throw up it would be Steve. “But equally you need to trust me that transferring knowledge is not going to be pleasant or nice.”

“Okay,” Steve said.

“And it’s not going to make you magically talented and you won’t know everything. It’s more about instincts and self-preservation so don’t be disappointed.”

“Danny, it’s fine, I get it, I just want to know more about what we’re going to be dealing with.”

“We? What do you mean we?” Danny asked. One fight did not a ‘we’ make.

“Are you telling me you’ve never fought magical monsters before? Because to me it looked like you were very experienced. I want you to know that I’ve got your back and the more I know the better I can help protect you.”

Damn Steve McGarrett for working out what Danny had been doing on his days off. “I don’t need protection, Steve.”

“Backup then. My point is, Danny, you don’t have to do this alone anymore.”

“All right. I am going to regret this but you might have a point, albeit a very small one,” Danny said. “Minute,” he added. He couldn’t deny that despite the many other Enforcers he had worked with over the years none had felt as natural nor needed as those few moments with Steve. 

“Thank you,” Steve said, smiling.

Danny looked over at the stairs. “We’re not going to do this down here. I don’t believe I’m saying this but we’re going to need a bed for this.”

“Really, Danny?”

“Yes, really, and just leave it alone.” Danny headed for the foot of the stairs. “Come on, upstairs. And stop that goofy grin because if you puke you’re cleaning it up.”

“Couldn’t you just do that with magic?” asked Steve as they started up the stairs.

“The Williams family motto is ‘don’t cheat’ so yes we could but we don’t, because we live among normal humans so we do things the normal human way.” Danny had enough lectures as a child to drill that in his head.

“You do realise I’m a McGarrett.”

“You’re a Williams by magical proxy,” Danny pointed out. It was strange to point that out but even if he didn’t take his feelings for Steve in a way that had always been true.

Once they got to Steve’s bedroom Steve stood there looking eager. Really the McGarrett enthusiasm was almost exhausting. Danny was grateful for it though. Steve was embracing what was more than a major life change and he was glad. It made him feel less guilty because Danny had made this choice for Steve essentially, yes it saved his life but it had also completely altered it and Steve had had no idea about that aspect of it. Danny was entitled to feel a little guilty.

“So, what do we do?” Steve asked.

“You’re going to need to take your shirt off. Not that you’ve ever needed an excuse,” Danny said.

Steve carefully pulled his polo shirt off and Danny was doing his best not to stare. Luckily, he had to remove his own shirt and that provided enough of a distraction. Who knew undoing buttons was so fascinating?

“You’re taking your shirt off?” Steve asked.

“Good observation skills, yes I am. Skin to skin contact is the easiest way to start this,” Danny said.

Almost immediately Steve start undoing his pants. “Why are you taking your pants off?” Danny asked this time struggling to avert his gaze.

“We’ll get more skin to skin contact that way,” Steve said, removing his pants with what looked suspiciously like a flourish.

Danny sighed and decided if he couldn’t beat them join them. After-all when was he going to get the chance to do this again? Although his pants removal wasn’t quite as elegant as Steve’s.

Steve was grinning as Danny carefully folded his pants and put them on the dresser. “Okay, Danny said, “Lie down on the bed on your side.”

Steve didn’t have to be told twice. Quickly he lay down on what was probably his side of the bed. Luckily Danny’s preferred side was the other side. He got on the bed and lay down to spoon Steve. Their skin touched and it should have been really awkward given Danny’s feelings regarding his partner but it wasn’t. It felt natural to put his arms around Steve and bring them into skin to skin contact.

Steve felt warm in his arms and not at all concerned. Maybe it was a Navy thing Danny reasoned. Steve had probably spent a lot of time in close quarters and situations with his fellow SEAL recruits. Danny secretly hoped that it had never felt this normal though, as if this perfectly natural feeling was an exception for Steve too.

Physically the two of them had always been perfectly comfortable around each other and this seemed to translate to the current feelings of relaxed naked touching. However, Danny knew that skin to skin wasn’t enough. What he was about to do would put a different spin on things and he wasn’t sure what was going to happen. That worried him.

“Okay, so whatever happens, Steve, just relax, don’t panic and don’t break contact.”

“I’m ready, Danny.”

Danny wasn’t sure he ever would be but he couldn’t delay any longer. He closed his eyes and let the feeling of human physicality fall away. It was rare he did this, he was rather attached to the human body he had been happily occupying for nearly forty years but there was a certain freedom in this, of just being, the way he was supposed to be.

Opening his magical eyes, rather than his physical human ones, he could see Steve straight in front of him. Steve hadn’t slipped beyond the physical yet but Danny needed to get closer so he pushed forward. It was a weird sensation for him and he could only imagine how uncomfortable it would be Steve, like having something literally churn through your insides.

Of course, he kept himself fully anchored. He was using only a small part of the vast energy that made up Danny Williams. Too much and Steve would be too overwhelmed. It was a delicate process and he knew Steve wasn’t going to enjoy this but it had to be done slowly.

Finally, Steve himself, the new Steve, the Steve wrought from the effects of a new liver and an excess of magical energy, was in reach. If Danny had been thinking physically he would have taken a deep breath before he reached forward but in this form breaths did not exist. Carefully he reached out and then he touched Steve.

The result was not what Danny expected at all. As soon as he touched Steve’s magical body he felt different, better, as if he hadn’t been whole before and had never realised. He interlaced his energy with Steve, feeling a fit that was absolutely perfect, the way it would be if two Lego bricks were slotted together. Steve was an extension of him and he was an extension of Steve, with both parts finally connected.

Where they were joined there was such a feeling of pleasure and rightness. It was so overwhelming that Danny nearly forgot what he was here for. Normally transmitting knowledge was hard and required quite a bit of effort but here everything just flowed. Danny didn’t even have to think, it just happened as if one part had recognised the other and sought to rectify the differences between he and Steve in terms of their magical instinct.

He could tell then the transfer was complete because a wave of contentment washed over him. Of course, then Danny had to try and separate from Steve and that proved to be the issue because he felt like they needed to do more with their connection, as if they needed to pull and push and wrap themselves up in each other. That was when Danny recognised what was happening. They were involved in a merge, the instinct pushing Danny was the magical instinct for the magical equivalent of sex. 

Danny had to stop this now before it went so far it couldn’t be stopped. Carefully he unwove himself from Steve and moved back. He retreated back and regained his physicality. The feeling of separation was strong and hit him like a bereavement. As he slid back into physicality he could feel tears starting to form and wasn’t that ridiculous. His feelings for Steve had created a maelstrom of emotion and they had come so close to magical consummation that missing it was more than disappointment.

As his physical senses slowly returned he could hear himself trying not to cry but what was more startling was Steve making very similar noises.

“I’m sorry, Steve,” Danny said. Sorry that I hadn’t thought this might happen. Sorry to put you through these emotions. Sorry for falling in love with you so hard this was the outcome.

“You want to cry too?” Steve asked, his voice a little bit broken.

“Yeah,” Danny said quietly.

“I thought you’d said we’d puke,” Steve said.

“I said you’d puke,” Danny pointed out.  He couldn’t resist holding Steve a little more tightly.

“I felt you, Danny. I felt… everything.” Steve took his hand and clasped Danny’s where he was holding onto him.

“Me too, Steve, me too.”

“Has that happened before?

Danny told the truth. “No.”

“It hurt when you, stopped. When you pulled back.”

“I know,” Danny said, giving Steve as much of a squeeze of reassurance as he felt appropriate.

“Do you know why?”

Danny knew, he knew very well. He hadn’t thought about the fact that there was a reason that the only time their kind touched that way was between family members or as lovers. It created an emotional connection that went beyond what any human would achieve. He should have realised what would happen by touching Steve.

Danny’s own parents regularly touched the same way he and Steve had just done, just as every other couple of magical lovers did. Although the way he and Steve had, that was extremely powerful for a first time. Danny had guessed they would be compatible in some level but to this extent he had no idea. How could he explain to Steve that what they had just done was basically nearly have the magical equivalent of sex?

He couldn’t tell Steve this. “No,” he answered to Steve’s question.

“But you have an idea?” Steve said, giving Danny an opening.

Danny was torn about what to tell Steve. “What just happened, happened, so... we’ll deal with it,” he said, giving a total non-answer.

“Okay, but if you find out you why what happened, happened, you need to tell me, Danny,” Steve said.

“Scouts honour,” Danny said.

Steve turned to look over his shoulder at Danny. “You were thrown out of the scouts.”

“I still believe in their honour,” Danny replied. He offered Steve a weak smile. Carefully he let go of Steve and stretched, a bit over dramatically. “Okay, let’s put some pants on and practice your slipping.”

Steve didn’t look happy at Danny’s brushing the issue off but for once he left it alone. Danny hoped that the next few days would distract Steve enough that they wouldn’t have to have a very awkward conversation later, because strangely, where once his deepest fear had been Steve finding out the fact Danny was magic now, he had a whole new set of fears in case Steve found out how deep that magic went between them.

Steve’s practice went on over the next week. They ran into the odd wyrm and several other foes that made Steve wish there was a book. Danny had been right; the transfer of knowledge hadn’t been knowledge per se. It was more instinct. Steve knew where best to launch a magical attack against a wyrm but ask him to draw one and mark on the anatomy and Steve wouldn’t have a clue.

He kept going back to that transfer of knowledge. He knew that Danny was holding something back. What they had done had felt right, perfect, until the moment they had separated. That had hurt, and what was worse Danny wouldn’t elaborate on what had happened. Steve was disappointed. He’d had a glimpse of what he and Danny could be together and it had been so good he hadn’t wanted to let go.

He knew that Danny knew what was going on and it was frustrating that he couldn’t get his partner to open up about it. After-all there was now no reason for Danny to be holding information back. They were the same now and yet there was still distance and secrets between them and it was frustrating. Steve was determined to get the truth.

After-all he had feelings for Danny, feelings that were now coming into sharp focus. What he felt for Danny was more intense than anything he’d felt before. Maybe it was sharing a vital organ, maybe it was magic. Steve didn’t really care about the reason he just knew that he and Danny had something special, it was love, but love built on something exciting and enticing.

Of course, telling Danny he was in love with him was not something that Steve was going to do immediately. He had to get past defences first, get him to give a little. He wondered if Danny had similar feelings and then remembered that Danny had given Steve his liver even knowing the consequences. That had to be love. If only Steve could talk to Danny about it.

The problem was finding the right opportunity. The training was relentless and Danny deflected Steve’s attempts at asking about what had happened during the transfer. Steve recognised now that Danny had been deflecting the truth for a long time so it was going to take a while to get past those ironclad defences.

A week after his conversion Steve and Danny were sitting on the couch watching TV and Steve had hoped this environment would let Danny’s guard down a little and give him the opening he needed. Unfortunately, before he could broach the subject Danny had more or less fallen asleep.

The local news bulletin came on and Steve’s interest was engaged as a murder was announced as the headline.

“The body of Hannah Chang was discovered this morning in her home in Aina Haina by her neighbour who found it unusual that Ms Chang hadn’t gone out to work that morning,” the reporter on the TV said. “Police said there are no signs of forced entry and though they suspect this is a homicide there are few details about any possible suspects.”

Beside him Steve could feel Danny tense up and his partner suddenly seemed very awake. Danny was staring at the TV screen as if he couldn’t quite believe it.

“Danny? What’s wrong?”

“I know her. I knew Hannah Chang,” he said, glancing at Steve.

“How do you know her?”

“She’s one of us,” Danny said. “Community like ours you know the name of everybody else.”

Another piece of information Steve had been lacking, that Danny was aware of others of their kind on Oahu. Perhaps Danny didn’t know her personally but he knew of her. So, what had him so worried?

“And she was murdered mysteriously. Is that normal?” Steve asked.

“It happens because we can be murdered,” Danny said, wincing a little. “But no, it’s not normal.”

“If it’s not normal we should investigate,” Steve said. They were probably the only law enforcement on the island who could.

“No, we cannot investigate. You are a magical accident waiting to happen,” Danny said, not even convincing himself from the tone of his voice. 

“Danny, you said it yourself one of our own has been murdered. Now that’s not easy to do, right? What if she was murdered by another magic being? Not even Five-0 could find the person who did it,” Steve said. He knew he had a point and he knew that Danny knew it too. 

“Our colleagues are good cops, Steve.”

Steve didn’t doubt that but his gut feeling was this was something out of the realm of human investigation. “But what if this is something cops can’t deal with?”

Danny sighed. “Okay, we investigate a little but if we find evidence the perpetrator is human we back off, alright?”

“But if the perp is magical…”

Danny held a hand up. “Then we turn it over the to the proper magical authorities and we do not engage.”

“Why not?” Steve asked, frowning.

“I knew that woman,” Danny said, pointing to the TV. “She was powerful. She didn’t do enforcement or get involved with the Council but she was more than capable of defending herself.  If she was killed by something magic, then we might not be powerful enough to stop it.”

Steve didn’t quite believe Danny. Everything he’d seen pointed to that fact Danny was powerful and experienced. This situation was an opportunity to investigate and learn, Danny had to see that. “All right.” He got up from the couch.

“Where are you going?” Danny asked, not moving from where he was sitting.

“To the crime scene,” Steve said, pointing to the door. “We need information.”

“We can’t go the crime scene. It’s all over the news which means media with cameras and that is too risky. We need to keep a low profile. You are meant to be out sick,” Danny said, though he got up from the couch anyway.

“Alright, so let’s go to HQ.”

“You realise our colleagues might be there?” Danny asked.

“They’ll be at the crime scene,” Steve said, pretty sure that would be the case. “We can slip in and out in seconds, come on.”

Steve didn’t give Danny a chance to argue. Over the last week he had become very adept at slipping. Danny had been right when he’d noticed Steve had an aptitude for it. It was a gut instinct that Steve was able to easily grasp, used as he was to trusting his instincts. He also knew that Danny wasn’t as talented in slipping as he was so he grabbed Danny’s hand and then slipped both of them.

It was so easy to do. Steve slowed the world down and pictured where he wanted to go, his office at HQ. It was a location that he was so familiar with that he could visualise it right down to the grain of wood on his desk. As a result slipping there was as quick as blinking as the world around blurred and then reshaped itself.

The whole time Steve was aware of Danny, almost as an extension of himself. He didn’t need to worry about bringing Danny along with him because he knew that Danny would be there as long as he held onto him. The hand holding was physical but Steve also reached out and grasped Danny magic body to magic body and that felt better.

It was a good feeling and Steve again wondered about the nature of what the transfer had been about. Was holding Danny this way meant to feel so complete? Everything felt easier when he Danny touched like his, as if their power increased. Slipping took effort but when they were together like this it felt like it was no effort at all.

Once they had arrived the world speeded back to normal. Steve reluctantly let go of Danny in the magical and physical sense. It was if a cold gust of wind knocked into him as he let go. That had to mean something. He’d ask Danny later, right now his partner seemed determined to be a bit upset.

“Steve! This was a spectacularly bad idea. Why would you even think we should do this? We should have driven over here but no, we couldn’t do the human thing, you had to risk slipping,” Danny said as he paced around Steve’s office.

“Relax, Danny, we’re fine, no-one saw us,” Steve said. He could see out of the glass doors and it was obvious that no-one else was present.

“You’re lucky no-one was here.”

“I told you they’d be at the crime scene,” Steve said. If someone had been here Steve knew they would have been able to find an excuse.

“You are familiar with security cameras? CCTV?”

“We don’t have them in the office,” Steve said, heading to the door. Any information was likely to be more easily accessed from the table computer.

“But we have it in the building. If you’d slipped slightly off you could just appear on camera or worse in front of one of the many people who work here,” Danny said.

Steve paused with his hand on the door. “Okay, I’ll be more careful.” Steve was confident in his abilities, which were never as sharp and refined than when he was with Danny, but he needed to Danny to get over his worry to focus on the case.

“What is going it take to have you go beyond careful?”

Steve knew exactly what it would take. If he had all the facts, if he knew what was going on between him and Danny, really going on the magical level and he suspected Danny knew what that was. “The truth.”

“What?”

“You’re still holding back from me, Danny,” Steve said, turning away from the door to face his partner. “How am I meant to understand all this is if you won’t tell me the truth? I understand the rules, Danny, I know you couldn’t tell me when I was human but I’m like you now so please stop holding back information.”

“I don’t mean to lie to you.”

“It’s lying by omission.”

Danny sat on the couch and bent down to put his head in his hands briefly. “I know. Steve, look, all my life, all my life, not one person has truly known the whole truth about me. Not even my own parents know that I…”

“That you what?”

Whatever Danny was going to tell Steve was interrupted as Chin suddenly opened the office door. Steve could have cursed. Much as he appreciated the fact that Chin might be able to give them some insight into the case, he was more invested in getting the truth out of Danny.

“Steve? What are you doing here? I thought you said you and Steve were out sick, Danny?”

Danny stood up and put his arm around Steve. “Yes, we are, very sick, but Steve didn’t believe me when I said he wasn’t fit for duty so here we are.”

“I’m feeling better, and you said I was looking better.”

“You had a liver transplant, Steve! It’s all relative,” Danny said, letting Steve go. Steve was disappointed. Physical contact between them now buoyed Steve up, made him feel stronger.

Chin didn’t look convinced. “So why are you here?”

“We heard about Hannah Chang’s murder,” Steve said. He was about to tell Chin that Danny knew her but he decided against that because of the glare Danny was giving him. “Have you got any leads?”

“No. She was found in a locked room, no signs of forced entry or another person being in the room at all. No fingerprints, or DNA. It’s like she was murdered by a ghost.”

“Is that possible?” Steve asked, turning to Danny.

“Of course, it’s not possible. Ghosts do not kill people as they don’t exist,” Danny said.

“We don’t have any ghostly suspects,” Chin said, chuckling.

“Do you have any suspects?” Steve asked.

Chin nodded. “The estranged son of a neighbour. Seems Ms Chang reported him to the police a few times.”

“Is that enough motive for murder?” Steve asked.

“Maybe not but it’s a lead and there’s not a lot of them in this case. No signs of forced entry, not even an obvious cause of the death.”

Steve was puzzled. “But the news is saying it’s a homicide.”

“Call it a cop’s gut instinct but something doesn’t seem right,” Chin said.  “It was too perfect.”

“Too perfect?” Danny asked. “How can someone being found dead be too perfect?”

“Her house was pristine,” Chin said. “Nothing out of place but there were ink marks on her hand, fresh ones, like a pen had leaked, but we checked around the body, on her desk there was no sign of any ink or a leaky pen.”

“So you’re basing your investigation on an inky finger?” Danny looked incredulous which, considering what Danny was and how many fantastical things were Danny’s normal, Steve found amusing.

“I know it’s not much but we need to be sure.”

“No, I agree,” Steve said and he did. Little details like that which made no sense? Seemed to suggest some odd involvement to Steve. Odd involvement he and Danny should investigate. “Is there anything we can do to help?”

Chin looked confused. “Other than you being on sick leave?”

“Chin’s right, Steve,” Danny said. “You need to take it easy. We’ll be going now, come on.”

Steve really didn’t want to leave but it would look odd if they stayed longer, so reluctantly he followed Danny out of the office and then out into the corridor. To his surprise though as soon as they were out of Chin’s sight Danny grabbed his hand and they slipped down a layer. There was little difference here except that Chin would have no idea they were there, or at least in the general vicinity. Steve was relieved that Danny wasn’t that eager to leave. He knew Danny wanted to investigate as much as he did.

“You have to be more careful, Steve,” Danny said.

“It was only Chin.”

“I know, and I trust Chin, but the Council do not and they are very capable of making humans disappear,” Danny said.

Steve frowned. “Do you think they could have murdered Hannah Chang?”

Danny shook his head. “If they did they would have made it more obvious, framed someone, probably the neighbour’s son, and left evidence to throw the human cops off.”

“Do you think it’s magic though?”

“Yes, okay, it’s probably magic,” Danny admitted.

“I knew you’d want to investigate,” Steve said, smiling. “So, what do we do now?”

“We wait until Chin’s gone and then we look at the evidence,” Danny said.

“Okay,” Steve agreed. It made sense to treat this as an investigation like any other murder.

“Come on,” Danny said, walking further away from the office and down the corridor. “We can get some practice in.”

“You are a hard taskmaster, you know that, Daniel?” Steve asked, though secretly he was pleased. He enjoyed training with Danny and the office provided a different setting than the layers they had been using back home.

“Practice makes perfect, Steven. Now I want you to remove all the glass in the windows without breaking it.”

Steve grinned and raised a hand. “Is that a challenge?”

“Go to it, super SEAL.”

Removing all the glass without breaking it turned out to be more difficult than Steve had imagined. There were always a few shards that insisted on breaking loose. Danny of course did it with a simple handwave. Steve figured Danny must secretly enjoy showing off to someone he knew. If only Danny would open up more about other things.

Eventually Danny deemed it safe for them to slip back to the reality layer. Chin had gone and the office was empty. It was getting late and it had gone dark outside.  Hopefully no-one would notice the activity in the office. Even palace security generally didn’t come this way at night.

Danny was over at the computer table getting increasingly frustrated. “How do you turn this thing on?” he asked.

Steve couldn’t help but snigger as he watched his partner try to press a screen that was blank and unresponsive.

“What?” Danny asked, turning to him.

Steve stifled his laughter. “Nothing just you’re a powerful magical being who can’t work out how to turn on a computer.”

“Magic and technology aren’t compatible,” Danny said, scowling a little.

“I can see that.”

“Are you going to help me? This was your idea.”

Steve went over to the computer table and decided there had to be an on button somewhere. “Okay, move over.”

“Please, show me your mastery of this machine,” Danny said, stepping back with a flourish.

“Thank you,” Steve said, and he tried to find the on button. It had to be somewhere obvious. He felt around the edge and cupped his hand underneath to check there but he was at a loss. “Okay this is... harder than… magic and technology don’t mix?”

Danny smiled smugly. “I’m enjoying this.”

Steve bent down and looked along the edge “Well, don’t enjoy it too much the information for our case is in here.”

“Your case?” Chin asked.

Steve startled and stood up to see Chin and Kono had entered the office and were walking toward them. Neither he nor Danny had noticed them so the cousins must have been ninja-like in their entrance.  “Chin, Kono, we were just... weren’t we, Danny?”

Danny put a hand on his back and together they started to casually walk to the door. “Yes, Steve, we were just leaving,” Danny said.

They hadn’t even got to the seal on the floor before Chin spoke up again. “So, Steve, Danny when were you going to tell us about the magic connection?”

Steve stopped in his tracks and he and Danny slowly turned around. “You know?” he asked. How much did they know? How did they know in the first place? If they knew what were the consequences?

“It’s kind hard not to notice with the magic rolling off you two,” Chin said, he was smiling, as if there was nothing wrong with this.

“They’re Mer, Steve,” Danny said, quietly.

“That’s right,” Chin agreed. “In Hawaii we’re called ke kilokilo kānaka o ke kai but Mer works.”

Steve turned to Danny. He knew the name ‘Mer’. “So, they have water magic?”

Danny nodded. He looked wary.

“I see you’ve been teaching him a lot,” Chin said to Danny.

“Hard not to,” Danny admitted. He pursed his lips. 

Steve looked at Kono and Chin but there was nothing obvious about them. They didn’t have any sort of glow about them. “They don’t look any different,” he said.

“Unlike you two who are actual magic, we’re humans able to channel the magic generated by the water,” Chin explained.

Steve had a vague understanding of what a Mer was, it involved water magic but the fact there was water magic in the first place confused him. “Water generates magic how?”

“A lot of things do, the water, the wind, the forest,” Kono said. “It’s earth magic though, so it’s different to the magic you use.”

“Okay, I get that there’s different types of magic but you two can use it?” Steve asked. Apparently not only had he spent six years working with a magic being there had been two magic wielding humans on the team as well. And he had had no idea.

“Kono much more than I can. There’s a reason she became a world class surfer,” Chin said.

“That’s cheating, you know that, right?,” Danny muttered.

“Just using my talents,” Kono replied, giving Danny a wink.

“So how long have you known about me and Danny?” Steve asked.

“Danny since we met hm. His magic is very… obvious. When I saw you before I noticed you had a different glow about you, the same as Danny’s,” Chin said.

“It’s a new development,” Steve asked, turning to Danny. “Why didn’t you tell me Chin was Mer?” he asked. Yet another thing Danny should have mentioned, especially before they’d come into work. If Danny had known about Chin and Kono why hadn’t he told Steve? It was things like this that made Steve realised he had barely scratched the surface of trust with Danny.

It was Chin who answered the question. “Secrecy, Steve, that’s how your kind operate and it’s how we do too. We’re very different to you and the culture here is very sensitive about these things.”

“Meaning magic channelling humans and magic beings don’t get on,” Danny said, speaking up finally. “In fact, we’re the opposite of getting on. Generally, we avoid each other.”

“It’s probably why Danny gets a lot of hostility from the locals,” Kono added. “Some of them don’t like your brand of magic. The magic here has always been earth based. Most of your kind don’t venture here. It’s one of the last earth magic dominated outposts in the world.”

That suddenly made Danny coming to Hawaii all the more amazing. If Steve hadn’t loved that fact about Danny before he did now. “And you moved here knowing that?”

His partner shrugged. “I wasn’t going to have my daughter growing up surrounded by just earth magic humans,” Danny said. “No offence,” he added to Chin and Kono. 

“None taken,” Chin reassured him. 

“Yeah it just shows how much you love Grace,” Kono added. “For an Enforcer to come here and do what you’ve done…”

Danny groaned. “Thanks for mentioning that in front of Steve.”

Finally, another piece of the endless puzzle that was Danny Williams. He smiled. “I knew you were out there fighting magical beings. Enforcers are like our cops, right?”

“Yes, and I promise we will discuss this later,” Danny said, holding a hand up. “I know lying by omission. I just didn’t want you throwing yourself into fighting magical beings and don’t say you wouldn’t try because I know you. I know you live for dangerous life-threatening situations.”

Before Steve could say anything else Chin spoke up. “So, this new development is related to a certain liver you now share?”

“That and the eternal wisdom of the Council, yes,” Danny said, sounding resigned.

“Ah,” Chin said as if he understood. “They don’t like humans.”

“They don’t like humans?” Steve asked, confused.

“Did you miss the part where they forcibly converted you to a magical being?” Danny said.

Steve frowned. “But that wasn’t a bad thing.” It hadn’t been. It had been one of the best things to have happened to him, painful and slightly traumatic it might have been but he’d had Danny with him through it all. It had been absolutely worth it for Steve.

“Bad thing or not they did it because as a human you’re no use to them as what you are now,” Danny said, waving a hand at Steve. “you are.”

“And earth magic humans are not useful to them,” Kono said. “They can’t control us or our brand of magic, it’s very different to what you guys are.”

“Is everyone on the team magic or just us?” Steve asked.

Chin smiled “As far as I can tell Lou Grover is as human as he seems. Jerry too. He’d like to be abducted by aliens but he’s still human.”

“Does Jerry know about you?” Steve asked, he knew Jerry and Chin were close and magic wasn’t the weirdest theory Jerry could have come up with.

“No. Weirdly the only conspiracy he’s never even touched is anything related to magic,” Chin said. He looked amused by the idea and Steve couldn’t blame him. Jerry was working with secretive magic people and he had no idea. 

“Huh. That’s... good to know,” Danny said, looking thought and pursing his lips again.

“So why tell us this now?” Steve asked.

“Because that gut feeling about Hannah Chang’s murder? Magic was involved. Your kind of magic,” Chin said. “Our Council aren’t happy but the new governor, who also happens to be the head of our Council, wants a more collaborative approach. She wanted us to approach you.”

“And hope our Council doesn’t find out?” Danny asked. He still had that wary look. Steve could tell that even talking to Chin ad Kono was probably violating several secret laws that Danny hadn’t yet told him about. Steve was relieved. Danny deserved to have his friends acknowledge the truth.

“She’s already making contact with your Council to get approval.,” Chin said.

Danny folded his arms. “Wow, brave lady.”

“So how are you finding being magic, boss?” Kono asked, smiling.

“It’s good, actually. It feels right,” Steve said, offering a reassuring smile back. And it did. He could honestly say that.

“I’m glad,” Kono replied, and she seemed genuinely happy for Steve. 

Danny clapped his hands, breaking the moment. “So, Hannah Chang’s murder, you knew she was magic?”

Chin nodded. “I did. There aren’t many of you on the islands and Hannah was one of the few born here. Her mother moved here when she married.”

“Mixed marriage?” Danny asked.

“Yes. Her father was human as far as we can tell, from Oahu.”

“And Lou and Jerry don’t know about any of this?” Steve asked. He felt he should check. Maybe Mer had different rules.

“Nope. Involving the mundane humans was not part of the plan,” Chin said. 

“Any obvious magical evidence?” Danny asked.

“Max gives cause of death as a heart attack but her autopsy suggested that it was as if her heart had been stabbed but there was no wound of any kind other than the one in her heart.”

“Someone used magic to kill her,” Kono said. “And not our kind of magic.”

Which meant Steve and Danny’s kind. “How would they have done that?” Steve asked, looking at Danny.

“They probably used a shifted blade,” Danny said. “You shift the blade, pass it through the victim and then shift it out for a second. When the blade shifts back it doesn’t leave a trace or a mark outside the body.”

“That sounds like it could be it,” Chin agreed. “Anyway, if you want I can turn that thing on and we can go over the evidence, what do you think?” he asked, gesturing toward the computer that had earlier thwarted Steve and Danny.

“That would be good, Chin,” Steve said. “What do you think, Danny?”

“I think seeing as Chin is offering to do all the computer stuff we should probably let him,” Danny said.

“Okay, let’s see what you’ve got,” Steve said, and they all walked back to the computer table.

Chin, with ease and experience, brought up the information on the screens. “Right so this is our vic. Hannah Chang, forty years old, no surviving family.”

There had been a photo shown on the news, so Steve knew what she looked like. A woman of Asian heritage of about forty, though Steve would have placed closer to thirty had he not known her age.

Chin continued. “This is what we found when we got to the crime scene.” He flicked his hand on the computer screen and the crime scene photos appeared.

Looking at the pictures Steve cocked his head. “She’s just lying there.”

Hannah Chang was lying stiffly. She was on her back, her arms at her sides and her hands curled up.

“That’s right,” Chin agreed. “Dressed in the last clothes she was seen in, no sign of anything around her It’s like she just died where she was standing.”

“Look at her hands, Steve,” Danny said. “Her left hand.”

Steve looked closely. Her left hand was more outstretched, as if she had been trying to make some sort of subtle gesture. Steve recognised it too. It was a defensive gesture. “She was trying to use magic to push someone away,” Steve said.

“Could someone have trapped her like that?” Kono asked.

“Someone sticked her so she couldn’t move,” Danny said.

“Sticked her? Are you sure our people are literate?” Steve asked.

“You do realise that literacy and spoken words aren’t the same thing?” Danny said.

“If you stick someone you restrain them?” Chin asked.

“Yes, and it’s not easy to do,” Danny said. “I tried sticking my brother once but all that happened was I broke my mother’s favourite chair.”

“So, whoever did this had to have been powerful and experienced?” Steve asked. He knew Danny was pretty powerful and though as a child he would have struggled the fact Danny had issues with sticking meant clearly it would take power and experience to pull off.

“Which means we’re looking at someone with Enforcer training or someone on the Council which mean this is about to get very political,” Danny said with a sigh. “Which means we’re going to need a lot more evidence than her hand position.”

“Has Eric processed anything from the crime scene?” Steve asked.

“Yeah, but he’s not let us know the results yet,” Kono said.

At that moment, as if he’d taken that as his cue, Eric sauntered through the office doors. 

“Hi guys,” offering a wave as he approached the table.

Danny was looking suspicious. “Did you just slip down here?”

Eric coughed, a little too loudly. “Erm…no…”

“Eric…” Danny said, a warning tone in his voice.

“Look, it’s just you guys and a couple of Mer I didn’t think it would be an issue,” Eric said.

“How am I meant to teach Steve the right way to do things if you keep breaking the rules?” Danny asked, standing in front of his nephew and glaring.

“Bending,” Eric said. “I’m bending them.”

“You keep this up and I’ll get you permanently shifted back to Jersey,” Danny said. The finger was being pointed, never a good sign for poor Eric. 

“Sorry Uncle D,” Eric paused and turned to Steve, “and Uncle S.”

Steve tried not laugh. “Uncle S? Is that a thing now?” he asked. Not that he minded. Eric was the second member of his new kind that he’d met and they were practically family.

“You don’t like it?” Eric asked, looking slightly embarrassed.

“I might need some time to get used to it E-Train,” Steve said, offering Eric a smile that he hoped wasn’t too encouraging, if only to stop Danny complaining.

“Okay, can we focus?” Danny asked, pointing to the screen.

“Danny’s right, we need to hear what evidence you found, Eric,” Chin said.

“Okay, I didn’t find much. There were no fingerprints other than the victims and no sign of a murder weapon but...” Eric trailed off and looked unsure.

“But what? Please, share,” Danny said.

Eric looked around and lowered his voice. “I felt something. There was magical residue at the crime scene. It wasn’t the victim’s because it didn’t feel like hers.”

“You can feel magical residue?” Kono asked, she sounded close to impressed.

That made Eric appear more confident. “Yeah, it’s a special talent.”

“It’s because of the way he ended up being…” Danny waved a hand. “conjured into existence.”

“That’s why I knew you guys were here,” Eric said agreeing. “Well kinda. You sort of feel the same but different, like you’re connected which is interesting…”

Steve’s interest was piqued so Eric had picked up on the strange connection he had with Danny but he didn’t have a chance to ask any further questions because Danny had already interrupted Eric’s speaking.

“Thank you, Eric. So, this residue?” Danny asked.

“Yeah, best guess is male, been around awhile,” Eric said, shrugging. “Pretty powerful but he’d have to be to take down someone like Hannah Chang.”

“Anything else? Did it feel like an Enforcer?” Danny asked.

“Not exactly but something similar,” Eric said. “They were pretty good at covering their tracks.”

“Great. Look, Eric, we appreciate the information,” Steve said, wondering if he should pat Eric on the back or not. He settled for a brief thankful hand on the shoulder.

“What about motive?” Danny asked, remaining very case focussed. Steve thought because perhaps he was trying to avoid something else.

Chin sighed. “That’s the missing piece of the puzzle. She could have had a beef with a local Mer but…”

“They wouldn’t have used a shifted blade to kill her,” Danny said. “And they couldn’t have sticked her.”

“Are you sure we don’t have a better phrase for sticking?” Steve asked. It still sounded so odd.

“I always thought that,” Eric said, smiling. “Hey, Uncle D, did you tell Steve about that time Mom sticked you to your bedroom door?”

Steve couldn’t help it and laughed. He could just picture a young Danny being stuck to a door by his older sister.

“No, but thank you for bringing up my childhood humiliation from thirty years ago,” Danny said.

Chin and Kono were smiling too and also obviously trying to hold their laughter in, like Steve.

“Your sister?” Steve asked.

“Stella is very powerful, okay, and I wasn’t expecting it. Can we get back to the case?” Danny asked.

There was a touch of a blush on Danny’s neck and Steve probably lingered on said neck a little too long.

Chin coughed. “Right, so we know the killer is one of you.”

“Well it wasn’t one of us,” Eric said, suddenly looking like he wanted to be elsewhere.

“I think Chin knows that, Eric,” Steve said. “Chin means the killer had to have been a magical being.”

“Oh right,” Eric said, shrugging and clearly trying to act cool.

“The answer lies in your community somewhere,” Kono said, to clarify.

“Okay,” Danny said with a slight sigh. “I’ll make a few calls, see if I can find out if she had any enemies.” He made his way to his office.

“I’ll try going through her e-mails, see if anything turns up,” Kono said, already tapping keys on the table.

“I’ll get back to the lab,” Eric said. “I’ll see if there’s any magical residue on the victim’s clothes.”

“And you will walk there like a human being,” Danny said, as he opened his office door.

“Walking, got it,” Eric said and made deliberately slow steps to the door.

Steve now had an opportunity with Danny otherwise occupied to get some answers from someone who might be a little more open to talking. “Chin, could I talk to you in my office?”

“Sure,” Chin said.

Once they had entered his office Steve sat down and waited for Chin to take a seat opposite. He had missed this chair he decided. He’d missed working a case and this particular case had a certain extra importance for him.

“You seem… happy,” Chin said.

“I am happy,” Steve said, he realised he was probably smiling. He was doing that a lot lately, even with the craziness that had become his normal. “This feels right, Chin. It’s like this is what I was meant to be, you know?” he said, leaning forward.

“Maybe you were,” Chin said.

Steve leaned further forward with his arms on his desk. “What do you mean?”

“Your father always used to say to me he thought there was something different about you. He could never pin down what it was, maybe it was this.”

“He never said,” Steve said. Not that he had felt different at all of course. At least he didn’t think he had. It was a long time ago since he and his father had spent time together. “I mean we barely talked after he had to send me and Mary away.”

“I think that was why maybe your father was bothered by it. He perhaps thought it was because he’d pushed you away.”

“But you think it was something different to that?” Steve asked. He suspected he already knew the answer. After-all Chin had knowledge that John McGarrett had not.

Chin looked thoughtful. “I think that very few humans ever get converted. Not every human would have survived an organ transplant from the body of a kilo…”

“Did you just call Danny a magician?” Steve’s Hawaiian was rusty but he recognised the word.

“Well he is magic and now so are you, so yes that’s how you’re known here.”

“And you think…” Steve asked trying to prompt Chin.

“I think you had the capacity to be one even when you were human, yes,” Chin said with a smile.

Steve frowned. “Do you think Danny thinks that?”

“I think it’s possible, Chin agreed, “and it’s also possible not even Danny realised, it might be subconscious for him.”

“I never knew how much he was hiding,” Steve said, leaning back a little. “How much he’s still hiding.”

“Give him time. He’s from a species who keep secrets about their secrets, it’s why earth magic people don’t trust them. Getting the truth from a kilo? That’s hard.”

Steve knew that. He knew how hard it was for Danny to open up having been conditioned all his life to do the precise opposite of that, but Steve was desperate for Danny to trust him. “I know, but he didn’t even tell me what you were.”

“And that was a good thing,” Chin said. “It wasn’t his place and he knew it. Danny respected Kono and I were the ones who would have to tell you. For a kilo he’s pretty understanding.”

“Thanks, Chin,” Steve getting up.

Chin stood too. “Anytime. Now I think I need to see if Danny’s made any progress.”

Steve smiled. “Mahalo.”

Chin smiled and went out of the office. Steve felt a little better. Chin didn’t seem overly concerned about Danny’s secrets, but then again, they didn’t directly affect him as they did Steve. He sighed. Danny was right that Steve was not the most patient of people and he wasn’t, especially when it came to something as life changing as this.

It had been life changing and there was something else that Steve felt was probably equally life changing that Danny was holding back. Perhaps he should encourage Danny to open up by doing so himself. Later, when they got home, and home as Steve’s house now, Steve decided he was going to make sure Danny knew how he felt then perhaps Danny might start admitting things out loud himself.


	3. Chapter 3

Danny was in his office. He’d made a few phone calls but the community in Hawaii for his kind was non-existent. That meant that the victim could have been in contact with any of their kind from either side of the ocean. Danny’s own contacts were mostly US East Coast which didn’t really help.

Danny had put the phone down on his last phone call to a friend who had spent some time on the West Coast (he hadn’t been able to help) when Chin came into the office.

“Any luck?” Chin asked.

“If she’d been from New Jersey I could have given you the names of half a dozen possible suspects but she’s from Hawaii where none of us ever come, not even for vacation, because we’re not exactly welcome,” Danny said throwing his pen onto the desk.

“And you came to live here,” Chin said. He sounded vaguely impressed.

“I did.”

“And now there’s Steve,” Chin said, casually sitting down.

Danny had a sense about what was coming. “Steve talked to you.”

“He wanted answers you know.”

Of course, Steve wanted answers, Danny thought. “I know and I will give them to him I just need…”

“Time?” Chin asked. “Yeah I thought you would.”

Danny bent over in his chair. “There’s something and I don’t know who he’s going to take it,” he said, looking up at Chin. Here was a person who wouldn’t judge, who didn’t hunger for answers like Steve. It was much easier to talk to him. 

“Something.”

“Yeah.”

Chin was smiling. “Would this something be related to the fact you two love each other a bit more than platonically?”

“It might be,” Danny admitted and okay it did feel good to acknowledge that out loud, “but there are… magical implications.”

“What Eric said about your magical residue?” Chin asked.

Danny nodded. Of course, Chin had picked on that. He had no idea how far Chin’s knowledge of magical beings went but he was pretty sure Chin had the outside perspective to start putting things together in a way Steve didn’t. “On a magical level, we’re… we’re connected and it’s scary because we’re… operating on a mythological level, even for our kind.”

“You know Steve deserves to know that,” Chin pointed out.

“I know and I will tell him but there’s so much out there and he’s taken this so well, I just keep waiting for the other shoe to drop, you know?” Danny could have it all with Steve and that was indeed all. All was everything he was and he’d never had that before with anyone. That was a scary prospect for someone who had never even dated one of his own kind before.

“I’ll tell you what I told Steve,” Chin said. “I think that maybe Steve was always meant to be one of you. John McGarrett always thought there was something different about Steve.”

Danny smiled in spite of himself. Earth magic humans were weirdly superstitious. “Is this Mer belief in magic and fate?”

“You can’t fight fate, you know that? Even if you don’t want to believe in it.”

“Thank you. I think.”

Chin got up. “Just promise me you’re going to talk to Steve.”

“I promise,” Danny said, surprised to find that he actually meant it.

“Good,” Chin said. “I’ll see you there in a minute.”

“Okay,” Danny said. He should talk to Steve sooner rather than later. This case had brought up how entangled Steve was now in a world Danny had long kept secret, and it might start to hinder Steve’s progress in their now shared world. It wasn’t fair to keep Steve in the dark.

Having managed to exhaust all his leads for now Danny decided to join his colleagues around the table computer. Steve had that look on his face, that look that said he had an idea and that Danny probably wasn’t going to like it.

“I think we should check out the crime scene,” Steve said, worryingly casually. “See if we can find something hidden in an alternate layer.”

“You think the murderer would do that?” Danny asked, as if the idea had not occurred to him back when they’d first found out about the murder. He’d avoided spending too much time thinking about it because he’d prefer Steve not to go slipping around a crime scene.

“Why not? No human cop can look there.”

“Okay, we’ll check out the crime scene but no using magic where the humans can see it,” Danny said.

Steve held his hands up. “I won’t, Danny.”

“Are you sure? Because we’re about to go into a populated area where there’s been a murder and humans never mind their own business even when there hasn’t been something major for them to gossip about,” Danny said, hoping he was getting through to Steve. 

“I’m sure,” Steve said. 

Danny sighed. “Promise me you won’t be obvious about using magic.”

Steve put his hand over his heart. “Scouts honour.”

“Were you even in the scouts?” Danny asked.

“Well I didn’t get thrown out,” Steve said, smiling.

“We’re not talking about that,” Danny said.

“So, shall we go?” Steve asked.

Then, literally just as Steve had promised to watch his use of magic, he suddenly slipped and Danny was slipping with him. The world shifted around them and Danny wasn’t quite how it had happened. He had felt a pull the very moment Steve had begun to slip and a small tendril of his magic self had seemed to attach to Steve, allowing him to be pulled along. The connection between them must be stronger than Danny thought. Sure, he was slipping himself but it was an almost subconscious impulse to follow Steve.

When the world shifted back around them Danny was dismayed to notice that they were outside the house. Outside. Where any passing human could see them suddenly appear out of thin air and that? That was a major issue.

“What the hell is the matter with you?” Danny asked, trying to keep his voice down to not draw too much attention to them. It was quite an exposed street. Plenty of opportunity for nosy neighbours to see them.

“What?” Steve asked, looking puzzled.

“What about the talk we had?” Danny asked.

“It was a good talk but slipping was the most efficient way of getting here.”

Danny sighed and pinched his brow. “Magic is not a shortcut, Steve. You do not use your magical abilities for things like this! Human beings can see you! You risk exposing our entire species. You think the Council are going to let you keep doing this? No, they are not and that means you and me get sent to somewhere we don’t want to be.”

Steve, for his part, did look genuinely contrite. “I’m sorry, Danny. I didn’t think. It just came naturally.”

“And that’s the problem. Just because it comes naturally doesn’t mean you have to do it,” Danny said. Then again from childhood he’d been taught how to keep those magical impulses in check. Steve was at toddler level of magical impulse control but that wasn’t his fault.

“Okay.”

“And what about Chin and Kono?” Danny asked. “You realise they need to use a car to get here?”

“I didn’t think about that,” Steve admitted.

“No. This is why you need to think, Steve,” Danny said, trying not to yell. “I know there’s some brains in that Navy SEAL head of yours.”

Steve looked around. “Should we slip back?”

“And risk being seeing by humans again? No. We wait here for Chin and Kono,” Danny said.

Steve appeared to be fidgeting, obviously keen to start investigating. “What do we do while we’re waiting?”

“We just stand here and look like we’ve driven here,” Danny said. “Casually.”

“How do we do that?” Steve asked, not looking at all convinced.

“We just act like two normal human beings who parked a street over,” Danny said, waving a hand in the direction of the street.

There was a pause whilst they tried to look casual. Danny looked at the bushes in the garden at the front of the house, wondering if maybe he and Steve should pretend to be searching them. His thoughts were interrupted by Steve.

“Okay. Look, Danny, I’m sorry. Really,” Steve said.

“I know. I just…” Danny knew it was partially his fault for not being honest. They really did need to talk. “I need you to be careful, Steve, please? Promise me you will be careful about using your abilities.”

“I promise, Danny,” Steve said solemnly. 

“Thank you. Now let’s pretend to look for evidence.”

The inspection of the bushes went well in terms of not drawing too much attention to themselves but it revealed no evidence. Not that Danny expected any. Steve was all for slipping and checking out the layers outside but Danny reminded him of his recent promise and that really it would be safer to slip indoors and then search outside.

A good half hour later Kono and Chin had arrived. As they exited Chin’s car they did look a little surprised at Steve and Danny being here.

Chin spoke first. “Hey, guys, you know, Steve seeing you disappearing out of thin air was…”

“Pretty freaky, boss,” Kono added.

“It’s fine Danny’s given me the talk,” Steve said. He turned to Danny and smiled. “And he had a point. So, let’s go inside.”

As the entered Hannah Chang’s home Danny was beginning to understand what Chin meant. The house looked perfect, a show house almost. It didn’t seem the sort of home that was lived in at all. Yes, there was furniture and ornaments but they weren’t placed naturally, it was hard to describe but it just seemed artificial.

“There’s not much here but you’re right it’s too perfect,” Danny said.

“Cop instincts are not often wrong,” Chin agreed.

“Okay, Chin, you and Kono check around for anything,” Steve said.

“All right,” Chin agree and he and Kono headed off to the back of the house where the bedroom was.

“And what are we going to do?” Danny asked. He could tell Steve had another plan for the two of them. He had that gleam in his eye.

“I was thinking we could check the layers underneath, what do you think?” Steve asked.

“I swear you are worse than Grace with slipping,” Danny said. Since becoming a teenager Grace had developed a worrying, more casual, attitude to slipping. One apparently shared by Steve. Still, Steve seemed eager, and he had a point, so with reluctance Danny agreed. “Yes, okay, we can check them.”

Barely had Danny uttered his agreement than he felt the two of them slipping down a layer. It was a very accomplished slip, definitely Steve’s talent. He didn’t dwell on the fact that he had slipped with Steve so very easily and naturally. Steve didn’t even think this was strange or odd apparently. At least he didn’t make any comment about it.

“Is there anything we need to be looking for?” Steve asked.

“Just anything… unusual,” Danny said. “If the killer left the knife here you won’t be able to miss it.”

A shifted blade would stand out very clearly, especially in a magical layer. Danny started looking around the room. Here too everything was too neat and in order. The magical layer was not directly affected by the human world so to find it so similar was a worrying sign. Someone had been here and had altered things.

“Okay,” Steve said, and he started to look around. He didn’t move anything at first, a visual inspection would be enough for now.

Danny took the other side of the room, keeping an eye out for anything that stood out. In a house like this he would have expected some ward remnants to be obvious in this layer but they weren’t. It was as if someone had cleaned this layer of any hint of magic, especially that belonging to Hannah Chang, and that took a lot of skill.

As he looked up he thought he saw movement out of the corner of his eye. It was obvious Steve had noticed it as well as he stood up and was looking in the same direction.

“Did you see something?” Steve asked.

“Yeah, just there,” Danny said, pointing.

Suddenly a human shaped person or thing, it was hard to tell, it looked black and slightly shapeless, appeared in the doorway out into the hall. Danny felt Steve react in the same moment he did. This was someone or something who was not meant to be here. Both of them moved quickly, almost synchronised.

“Stop!” Steve said as the blurry shape moved down the hall toward the back door.

Steve was in hot pursuit. Danny knew exactly where he was and how close he was to catching whoever or whatever it was. That was when Danny decided that Steve needed backup and he needed it quicker than Danny could manage in this layer. So Danny, hoping Steve would not be too disoriented, slipped down another layer.

This wasn’t something Danny often did because of the inherent danger. Most magical creatures would use this layer as it provided quicker movement. It was also very dark and very hard to see where he was going. Fortunately, Danny had that connection to Steve and that connection gave him some awareness. He was travelling quicker in this layer and soon overtook the person they were pursuing.

He broke through into the magical layer in front of the suspect, if it could be called that. They were now in the backyard and now seeing their suspect head on Danny could see whoever it was one of them wearing a black cloak, hence the weird shape. He made a fist in case said suspect needed subduing.

However, as soon as he realised Danny was there the suspect skidded to a halt and stopped, just as Steve came tumbling after him. The suspect held up his hands and then gently removed the hood part of his cloak.

“Enforcer Williams,” he said. “I apologise, I had no idea you were investigating.”

“Who are you?” Danny asked as Steve came to stand next to him. He noticed that Steve too had his hands ready in case of magical attack and was pleased to notice that his teaching had clearly had effect as Steve had the correct hand placement.

“Observer Brockman from the West Coast Sub-Council,” he said. Then he looked at Steve and smiled. “And this must be Steve McGarrett.”

“How do you know my name?” Steve asked.

Danny could guess. The magical world was full of gossips. He was right as Brockman answered.

“The first converted human in years, word gets around.”

Danny did not like the guy’s smile, or attitude. “So, what’s a West Coast spy doing in Hawaii?”

“Observers are our spies,” Steve muttered. Clearly sometimes that knowledge took a moment to make it through to Steve.

“As you know the isn’t a sub-council or community here so the West Coast Sub-Council took responsibility. Hannah Chang was one of our operatives.”

“She was working for you?” Danny asked. Suddenly things had got a lot more complicated. Although it explained why one of his kind was here, on an island near outright hostile to their kind. Spying was not a profession that made you many friends.

“Yes. She was our Observation Specialist for the earth magic community here,” Brockman said.  “Hawaii has one of the largest and most well established earth magic communities in the world. There’s more Mer found here than anywhere else in the United States.”

“So, the Council wanted to spy on them, obviously,” Danny said. This was why he hated politics. Some of the methods employed by the Council were unfair and underhanded and he hated it. He was glad that he didn’t have any personal Council oversight to his activities.

“I know it can be hard for an Enforcer from New Jersey where earth magic has all but died to understand, but trust me there’s a lot of them on the west coast and we find it important to keep informed about their activities,” Brockman said, with a hint of condescension.

This wasn’t a surprise since Danny found a lot of his kind had disdain for those who grew up in cities. For Danny cities were great, full of magical possibilities, but many of his kind never even bothered to look. They saw a barren landscape devoid of magic when in fact nothing could be further from the truth. There was a reason he’d been trained as an Enforcer from an early age, there was enough to keep Enforcers very busy back east. 

“How long was Hannah Chang observing the community here?” Steve asked, clearly paying attention to the conversation, and clearly disliking Brockman as much as Danny was.

“All her life. Her mother was the previous specialist here on Hawaii,” Brockman replied.

“Oahu,” Steve corrected.

Brockman looked confused. “What?”

“This island is Oahu. Hawaii is the big island,” Steve explained.

Danny smiled. Steve was rarely this pedantic with outsiders but he couldn’t blame Steve in this instance. He too was obviously sick of Brockman’s superior attitude. 

“I see,” said Brockman in a tone that suggested he didn’t, or at least didn’t care. “Well, Hannah was murdered and my Sub-Council want to know the reason why. It could jeopardise our work here, especially if Mers are responsible.”

“She wasn’t killed by the earth magic community,” Steve said. “She was killed with a shifted blade.”

“Are you sure?” Brockman asked. He looked shocked enough.

“We’re sure,” Danny said. He used his strongest Enforcer tone to prevent Brockman questioning him. Observers were great on principle, not so much on practical experience.

“Is there anyone on our Council who would want her dead?” Steve asked.

Brockman shook his head. “None I can think of. She was too valuable to murder for petty reasons.”

“But those petty reasons exist?” Danny asked, he knew full well they would. Magical politics was full of pettiness, family feuds and old grudges.

“She wasn’t too popular with some members of the Council they felt she was too sympathetic to the earth magic people,” Brockman admitted. 

“And there’s motive,” Steve said.

“I can assure you that none of my colleagues would have hurt her in any way,” Brockman didn’t sound convinced. 

“Well, we’ll need to check on that, come on,” Danny said. He reached out and grabbed Brockman’s right arm as Steve grabbed the other.

Before the Observer could say anything Steve expertly slipped them back up a layer, to near enough the same spot they had been. Had they not had a prisoner that he was very wary of Danny would have made some remark about Steve and perfectionism. 

China and Kono walked back into the room and seemed shocked to see Brockman. Danny could understand that.

“Where did you guys go?” Kono asked.

“Down a layer,” Danny said, before adding, “don’t ask.”

Chin was busy looking Brockman. “Who’s this?”

“This is Observer Brockman,” Steve said. “And apparently, Hannah Chang was spying the earth magic community.”

“You’re going to tell a couple of Mers that?” Brockman said. He was trying to escape but Observers struggled to really use offensive magic, which is what he would have needed to escape Danny’s grasp.

“Those Mers are working with us so shut up,” Danny said.

“I’m just... surprised,” Brockman said. “I assume you have Council approval?”

“We have the approval we need,” Steve said. It was a little white lie but Brockman didn’t need to know that. “Come on.”

Danny pulled Brockman out of the house with Steve. He was glad that the Observer wasn’t struggling, though he wasn’t under any illusions that Brockman wouldn’t try and use magic. He’d just limit it to where he wouldn’t be seen by humans or Mers.

“Where are you taking me?” Brockman asked as he was pulled to the car.

“We need to ask you some questions,” Steve said.

It was a squeeze to fit them all in Chin’s car but they managed. Brockman was squeezed in the back with Danny and Steve. He looked suitably pissed off and Danny was enjoying that. If anyone deserved to be pissed off it was an Observer.

Although Danny doubted Brockman had killed Hannah Chang, Observers hated to get their hands dirty like that, he was clearly involved in some way. After-all they’d caught him sneaking around a magical layer at the crime scene. And Danny’s mother had often told him that you never could trust the motives of an Observer, they weren’t given to telling the truth.

They deposited Brockman in the rendition room, making sure that for the moment the camera feed was on. Once they went in to talk to him Danny knew they’d have to turn it off. Secrecy was still important, even when dealing with a magical weasel like Brockman. They weren’t going to break their species’ highest laws just to find out what he knew.

They were in Steve’s office, after Danny had just gone over their interrogation strategy when there was a knock on the glass door.

Danny saw Lou standing outside. Steve waved him in. Not that Danny wasn’t grateful to see their friend but he was worried about either he or Steve letting something about their prisoner slip.

“I noticed there’s a guy downstairs and you two are back at work, what’s going on?” Lou asked.

“Hannah Chang’s murder,” Steve explained. “Danny and I decided to help investigate.”

“Are you two still sick?” Lou asked giving a brief point at them both.

“We’re never been better, right, Danny?” Steve asked.

Danny smiled. “Steve’s right actually,” he said.  “For once. But you know you never know when you might get a relapse.”

If it hadn’t been for this murder neither of them would be in the office and Danny hoped when the case over he and Steve could have a bit of down time. Though knowing Steve that wasn’t going to be easy. Still, there was no harm covering themselves.

“So, what’s this guy’s connection to Ms Chang?” Lou asked.

“Old family friend,” Steve replied. 

“Uh huh.” Lou didn’t look convinced. “Is that it? Is he a suspect?”

“He’s a person of interest,” Danny answered. 

Lou frowned. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Trust us on this, Lou, everything’s fine,” Steve said, smiling that stupid goofy smile that Danny secretly loved, not that he was going to mention that to Steve.

“All right. I tried talking to the neighbour again but I don’t think the son is good for it,” Lou said.

“We agree,” Steve said. “Do you know where Hannah Chang worked?”

“Yeah, she worked in a realtor’s office downtown,” Lou replied. “Why?”

Steve stood up and walked to the door. “Great I need you to interview her co-workers and find out her movements over the past week.” He opened the door as a subtle hint that Lou luckily took.

“And what and you and Danny going to do?” Lou asked as he stood in the doorway.

“We are going to talk to Mr Brockman again,” Steve said. 

“The guy downstairs?” Lou asked.

“Yeah,” Steve said. “We’re hoping he might open up to us.”

Lou still looked confused but he bought the act that Steve was selling, and Danny could tell it was an act. “Okay, well, I’ll leave you guys to it.”

“Thanks, Lou.”

They watched Lou leave the office and Steve looked out to make sure that their colleague was now well out of earshot.

“You handled that pretty well,” Danny said.

“I did?” Steve asked as he walked back to his desk. There was that goofy smile again.

“Yeah, I mean I would have gone with a different reason for Brockman being downstairs but other than that good job,” Danny said. He did think Steve had covered things pretty well. For someone with poor magical impulse control Steve at least seemed to have got the ‘keep humans in the dark at all times’ part of his lessons down pat.

“What would you have said?” Steve asked as he sat down.

Danny thought for a second. “That we weren’t sure but he was snooping around the house. No need to give a direct connection to the victim.”

“Okay,” Steve said, taking that in. “But I did well, you said.”

“I did and I meant it. So, can we move on?” Danny asked.

“Absolutely,” Steve agreed. He got up. “Let’s go talk to Brockman.”

They entered the rendition room to find Brockman where they left him, cuffed to the chair but Danny was pretty sure that situation wasn’t going to last. Brockman had had a lot of time to think and Observers were nothing if not good at planning.

Steve took the lead with the interrogation and Danny let him. It would hopefully unnerve Brockman to be questioned by a former human. A former human who wasn’t involved with the vast political baggage that Danny and Brockman had. As far as Steve was concerned Brockman was just another suspect and hopefully that would wrong foot Brockman enough to give up some information.

“Observer Brockman,” Steve said, approaching the prisoner, “we need you to tell us everything about Hannah Chang’s assignment spying on the earth magic community here.”

Brockman scoffed. “What and let that information fall into Mer hands?” Brockman paused and lowered his voice. “Or worse humans.”

Danny stepped forward a little. “This room is sealed off. There are no cameras, no sound, nothing recording this. You could scream and no-one would hear you. There are no humans around so we can talk. So, talk.”

Brockman turned his head away. “It’s classified. I would need Council approval.”

“I don’t think you get how this works,” Steve said. “You tell us everything and then we decide if you get to leave.”

Brockman sneered. “I’ll forgive you because you used to be human, but Enforcer Williams should know better. Or maybe he doesn’t. I mean he gave his liver to a human.”

Danny could feel his anger rising. How dare Brockman question his actions toward Steve? Steve was twice the magical being Brockman could ever hope to be. Danny realised too late that Brockman had goaded him deliberately because within a moment Brockman had broken free.

Cursing his moment of distraction Danny found that Brockman had already slipped but Steve had slipped the both of them after him. Now with his head a bit more back in the game Danny internally thanked Steve. He knew that Brockman couldn’t get too far, even slipping. The palace was heavily warded, Danny had put years of work into the magical protections and an Observer like Brockman would struggle to overcome them.

It was then that he felt that connection with Steve again. They moved together and soon had Brockman surrounded. Steve on one side and Danny on the other. Brockman, knowing he was cornered had clearly noticed that he couldn’t slip any further and he was now as dangerous as an animal backed into a corner.

Brockman threw out a magical attack to Steve, a simple slicing of magic but Danny blocked it and shattered the magic with a punch before it came close to Steve, just as Steve threw an attack at Brockman, a slightly clumsy fireball of magic. Danny could picture his reserves and Steve’s merging again. They were perfectly in sync. Steve moved closer to Brockman and Danny deflected another of Brockman’s slicing attacks. Luckily Brockman’s aim wasn’t the best.

It was clear that Brockman was trying to shift their surroundings but Steve was good at shifting. Danny felt Steve undoing every piece of the shifting Brockman was trying as their surroundings seemed to ripple with shift and counter shift. Danny threw more of their reserves toward Steve who then pushed a little back. Danny started to restrain Brockman. Restraining magic was hard. Sticking was one thing but in a layer, it required something a little bit more.

There was a perfect balance of magic flowing between Steve and Danny as the two of them knew what the other was doing. Danny could feel Steve’s intricate movements undoing Brockman’s shifting attempts just as he knew that Steve could feel the strain of restraining Brockman.

It was also true that Steve knew the exact moment to shift them back a layer. Danny could hear Steve, or more accurately feel him. It was as if thought and emotion had merged together and they were in such sync that they worked as a normal magical being would work with their hands. One the left and one the right, always aware of where the other was.

As they slipped back up a layer Danny felt their reserves channel into restraining Brockman. It didn’t matter he was the one physically channelling the energy, Steve was right there with him, sharing in throwing out that energy. They were doing it together.

It was an intoxicating feeling. Danny leant into it and reached out to Steve on a magical level. His magical body entwining at the edges of Steve’s. It was near explosive because Danny’s thoughts started to become a little blurred.

Even so he could feel the restraint work as Brockman suddenly was thrown back into the chair, the handcuffs reattached and Brockman sticked down where he was. The urgency faded and Danny could feel himself a little clearer headed. Reluctantly he removed his magical self from Steve’s as their reserves moved apart.

It felt an age but there wasn’t any pain thankfully. Danny had heard tales of bonded or merged pairs having difficulty separating due to pain. In this case though there was none. They had come together and come apart as naturally and easily as waves moving on a beach.

Steve smiled at him. Brockman on the other hand was staring at them.

“Oh, god you’re a Merged Pair,” he said. “Does the Council know?”

Steve looked puzzled. “What do you mean?”

Brockman laughed. “You don’t even know, oh that’s amazing.”

Danny held a hand up “You try that again and we’ll shift you to a below layer and let wyrms deal with you. Now talk. Hannah Chang.”

Brockman now looked genuinely afraid of them, as he should be. “Okay, her reports lately weren’t very… informative. We believe that Chang had become a sympathiser to the Mers, a liability.”

“Enough of a liability to kill her?” Steve asked.

“Not to us. Look, last time I spoke to her she said she had some very important intel. She said she’d only tell me in person. That was two days before she was killed,” Brockman said.

“Did you tell anyone about what she’d told you?” Steve asked.

Brockman glanced between them. “Of course, I told the Council. Not my Sub-Council but the main Council.”

“And you didn’t think that maybe she’d found something out that she didn’t want them to know which was why she was talking to you?” Danny asked. Observers were far too fond of blabbing to the Council. Chang should have come to him, Danny could have helped.

“She shouldn’t have trusted you,” Steve said. “Because it seems pretty obvious to me that she told you for a specific reason and she told you, not the Council. You tell them and she ends up dead. I don’t think that’s a coincidence.”

“All right,” Brockman said. “But like I said, she was a sympathiser. As are you apparently.”

Danny could feel himself getting angry again but this time he wasn’t going to get distracted. “Yes, we’re sympathisers because Mers are not our enemy. I’ve spent my entire life fighting off magical threats to keep people like you safe and none of them were ever earth magic humans.”

“You’re so naive,” Brockman said.

“Maybe but I’ve not met many of our kind yet and I know nearly as many Mers as I do our kind and so far they impress more than you,” Steve said. “If you have anything else you want to tell us we’ll be back later.”

“Sit tight,” said Danny before he did a small hand movement to make sure Brockman would remain sticked.

As they were walking away from the rendition room Steve had aneurism face. “I need to know what Brockman meant,” he said.

Danny knew that Steve did need to know. He was going to tell him anyway but Brockman’s shock and loose mouth meant that Steve was now acutely aware that there was something different going on between them. It was time to tell Steve. “Not here,” Danny said. “Your place.”

“Okay.”

As he drove he and Danny home Steve tried not to ask any questions. He knew Danny wouldn’t answer them until they got home, safe from prying human eyes. He needed to know though. The two of them, fighting Brockman they had been so in tune. It had been incredible. It had been like the incident with the wyrm and yet somehow more polished. Steve needed to know what it was. What was this Merged Pair Brockman kept referring to?

Steve waited until the front door closed before he confronted Danny. “What was Brockman talking about, Danny? And don’t tell me you don’t know because I know you do.”

Danny sighed. “This is complicated.”

“I know I’m part of this strange world now with different rules and it is complicated but, Danny, you can tell me,” Steve said. He tried not to let the frustration show in his voice. He knew Danny cared for him, he cared for Danny, it was as simple that. 

Danny started to pace a little. “You’re going to make me say it,” he muttered. Then Danny stood in front of Steve and took a breath before he spoke. “I love you.”

It was hard not to jump up for joy but that was exactly what Steve wanted to do. “I know that,” he said, of course his instincts had been right.

“Not like…” Danny started.

Steve decided to shut him up. He leant down and gently kissed Danny. He brought his hand up to cup Danny’s cheek. It felt rough and yet Steve loved it. He tasted Danny as the kiss deepened and found himself pulling Danny closer. When he finally let go Steve knew he was smiling and he was pleased to see Danny was as well, despite himself.

“You love me like that, I know, Danny,” Steve said.

“How could you possibly know that?” Danny asked, now looking slightly annoyed.

“Because I feel the same way. Am I wrong?” Steve asked. The kiss proved he wasn’t but still, it was nice to have some confirmation.

“No, you are stubbornly right,” Danny said, reaching and giving Steve’s hand a squeeze. “How come you get to be right about this?”

“Because I am,” Steve said. “So, what’s the problem?”

“The problem is this,” Danny said.

Steve felt Danny reaching out magically and he couldn’t help but do the same. He felt them connect on their magical level and it felt good, intimate in a way that a kiss wasn’t, nice as kissing was and Steve hoped to do more. He felt their reserves mix a little that was also nice. Like having waves wash over him.

Then he felt Danny draw back and the connection was lost. Well, there was still something there but they were no longer touching. “What was wrong with that?”

“We did that when we were dealing with Brockman and that, Steven, is not meant to happen. That is not normal. What we did is something that most couples have to train years to do and we just did it,” Danny said.

“Still not seeing the problem, Daniel,” Steve said and he genuinely couldn’t. If anything the fact he and Danny could do with without years of practice was clearly an advantage. They had something really special. Maybe it was the way they’d come together, maybe it was their feelings but either way it was there and they worked perfectly together.

“Are you serious?” Danny asked, sounding disbelieving.

“So, we’re compatible, what’s wrong with that? It just means we’re in sync,” Steve said.

“Yes, and do you know how many of our kind sync like that?” Danny asked.

Steve shrugged. “I don’t know. Do you want me to give you a percentage?”

“Yes! Give me a percentage,” Danny said. He probably would have thrown his hands up had Steve not being holding onto one.

“Fifty percent?” Steve guessed, trying to work out how many of their kind were together, married or single.

“Without training? Nearly no percent, Steve. This is not something that happens ever and never this fast, which means that I don’t know what’s going to happen to us,” Danny said, looking at Steve and looking like he was torn, his anxiety obviously preventing him from fully enjoying this.

“This doesn’t happen?” Steve was honestly surprised. He imagined it was a natural consequence for most couples of their kind. To find out it required training was a bit of a shock.

“No. Look, married or working couples after years can do this but we do it like it’s…” Danny tailed off.

“Like it’s natural instinct?” Steve said. He knew how it felt and that was exactly what it felt like. “It is, Danny. Does this feel wrong to you?” Steve interlaced their fingers together.

There was a pause. “No,” Danny said. “No.”

“Then don’t fight it,” Steve said. “We have a chance to make something out of this relationship, are you going to throw that away?”

“I don’t know what’s going to happen, and I know for you, who lives with danger, that’s fine but I like to know what this means for us,” Danny said.

“Do you think we’re going to split up?” Steve asked. “That this is going to break us up? Because this is the opposite of that Danny. I know this means… we’ll always be together. And I want us to be together. I don’t care if we turn into three headed magical monsters because at least I’ll be a monster with you,” Steve said. “We’re compatible and we’re good together. Trust us, Danny.”

“I don’t know how attractive you’d look with three heads,” Danny said, though he was at least smiling a little now.

“I’d look very attractive,” Steve replied, bringing Danny in for another kiss.

This time the kiss got rather more involved. As they pulled back this time Danny’s pupils were larger. “Okay. You realise this means I’m going to give you the talk?” Danny said. “Because you are not learning about sex from Eric.”

“This might surprise you, Danny, but I know what sex is,” Steve said.

Danny looked like he was blushing. “Not the magical kind.”

“The transfer of knowledge was that…” Steve wasn’t sure how to end that sentence what they had been through then had been intense, in many ways more intense than human sex.

“Yes.”

“Can we start talking about it now?” Steve asked.

This time Danny drew Steve in for a kiss. “Absolutely.”

It was amazing they made it upstairs to an actual bed. They were both eager which Steve put down to years of unrequited sexual tension. Or it was perhaps the weird magic connection arcing between them. Whatever it was he was glad of it.

They finally made it to the bedroom, kissing and, as Danny might have put it, groping. Steve could feel this sudden need to have Danny as close as possible. The more skin on skin contact the better which led to the rather unromantic moment of tearing buttons off Danny’s shirt.

“You’re going to sew these back on,” Danny grumbled.

“Hmm mmm,” Steve said. He wasn’t really paying that much attention to things.

The rest of the clothing came off without incident thankfully, which was good because Steve was getting impatient. He just wasn’t quite close enough to Danny, which was weird to think when they were on the bed, naked together. To most people this would be close enough but it wasn’t. There was something at the back of Steve’s mind urging him to become closer.

He found himself on the bottom as Danny took the lead. It made sense since Steve didn’t know what magic sex entailed, even if at this point everything was familiar. They moved against each other slowly, deliberately, savouring every sensation.

Steve’s hands drew Danny closer, over and over again. It felt good but Steve knew it would feel better. At the edge of his perception was something just out of reach.

“When you feel it, let go,” Danny said, panting a little.

“Feel what? How will I know?” Steve asked.

Danny smiled. “Oh, trust me you’ll know.”

They continued their bodily dance and Steve did begin to feel a disconnect. There was his human body and all the pleasure he was getting there but at the same time he felt the magical side, the separate part, the part that actually felt more real.

Steve hadn’t been convinced by Danny’s ‘you’ll know’ remark but there was no denying that the closer he got to orgasm the more he wanted to pull away from the human side. So he went with the feeling and allowed the disconnection to happen.

It was very disconcerting because he could feel his human body still but his main focus was on his magical one. He blinked and saw himself and Danny in human bodies but also in their magical forms and Danny’s was so close, so in reach. So Steve did what he wanted to do, he reached out and touched Danny with his magical body, the way he’d felt them manage it before.

It was only a little part at first but gradually Steve felt more and more of their bodies carefully entwining. There was a spark where they touched, a pleasant tingle of energy that warmed Steve and spread through them both. Their bodies interlaced together carefully. Their magical bodies were really just blobs of energy but energy that swirled and entwined with each other.

He felt whole like this, he was still Steve, and there was still Danny. but there was also SteveandDanny and it felt so, so good. Steve was sure he had come in human body but that sensation was just a weak echo compared to what he was doing on the magical level.

Danny was moving them round, pushing into Steve and letting Steve push into himself. They practically danced around each other, in each other, their energies coming together like two pieces of the puzzle. The sensation was intense, they were closer than they could ever get in a human body and Steve clung onto Danny for as long as he could.

Then it was as if their reserves exploded and a wave of magic undulated between them. It was so powerful that Steve could have sworn they slipped several layers to heaven. Everything felt like a bright glow. He couldn’t see anything but he didn’t need because he was feeling it. It was amazing.

As the magic gently ebbed away he felt Danny disentangling them gently. There was none of the pain that had accompanied the transfer of knowledge. Steve teased Danny, pulling him back and touching him softly. Danny eventually untangled them and the kept touching gently, just letting their magical bodies have contact on the edge.

Then Steve felt his awareness coming back and the sensations of his human body seemed to push on. Suddenly breathing was a thing as well as temperature. He blinked and found himself mostly back in the human world. He wouldn’t say the real one since what he had shared with Danny had felt far more real.

Gradually Steve felt his magic self align back into his body and he smiled. Danny was lying on top of him, also exhausted. Still Danny was managing gentle kisses to Steve’s chest.  He stroked Danny’s back and then kissed his forehead.

“So that’s magical sex?” Steve asked.

“Hmmm, yeah, that was it,” Danny said, sounding more relaxed than Steve had ever heard him. Content even.

“Why haven’t we done this before?” Steve asked.

“Well, until five weeks ago you were a human being,” Danny replied, mumbling a little. 

“I meant this, us, sex,” Steve said.

“Because you were an idiot,” Danny said.

“I was an idiot?”

Danny’s eyes were closed. “Yeah. Anyway, this is a better first time together than human sex, right?”

Steve couldn’t really argue with that. 

Apparently magical sex was as tiring as the normal human kind and Steve and Danny ended up sleeping right through until morning They were woken up by the sound of a ringing phone. Well, Steve didn’t quite wake up as he was in that fuzzy not quite fully conscious phase and kept his eyes closed. If he did that the sound might just go away.

Danny, however, had decided the phone needed to be answered and got up out of bed, despite Steve’s attempts to pull him back.

“I need to answer the phone, Steven,” Danny said, gently pulling Steve’s arm away.

“If you don’t it’ll stop,” Steve mumbled. He half opened his eyes to see Danny searching through the pile of clothes they’d left unceremoniously on the floor.

“I forgot you used to sleep through actual bombs exploding,” Danny muttered. Danny found the phone and held it up, waving it in Steve’s direction. It was still ringing and it was much louder when not muffled by Danny’s pants and shirt. Steve opened his eyes and yawned.

Danny checked the caller ID and sighed.

“What?” Steve asked. He was now a bit more awake and he could tell Danny was bothered by the call and not just in a ‘this has disturbed my lazy morning’ kind of way.

Danny held up a hand as he answered the phone. “Rachel? What do you...?” Danny pinched the bridge of his nose. “What today? Yes, I know it’s the weekend. No, I’m not busy but…” Danny had started pacing the room. “Okay, but I’m at Steve’s. Yes, I can pick them up. Okay, I’ll be there in half an hour.”

Danny ended the all and looked apologetically toward Steve.

“Rachel?” That explained the look Danny had made, Steve thought.

Danny came and sat on h bed. “Yeah, she thinks the kids need a magical time out which is true because I’ve been spending time with you and magical children, when they don’t get a chance to vent their reserves a little, end up making a mess in their mother’s house.”

In the flush of what he and Danny were discovering Steve had to selfishly admit that he hadn’t factored in Grace and Charlie, which was crazy because Danny was a devoted father. “I didn’t mean to keep you from your kids.”

“You didn’t,” Danny assured him. “Rachel won’t let them practice at home so the only chance is with me.”

“So, go pick them up and bring them back here,” Steve said. He liked having Grace and Charlie around. It made perfect sense.

“You’re sure?” Danny asked, sounding surprised.

Steve nodded. “We could practice together.”

“They could probably teach you a thing or two,” Danny said.

“Oh really? Steve asked.

“Yes, really,” Danny said, leaning down. “I have very talented kids.”

“They don’t take after you then?” Steve said, pulling Danny down for a kiss before he could reply.

The kiss ended and Danny actually looked happy for once. Steve liked it, it suited Danny to look happy at life for a change. “Go and pick up your kids,” Steve said.

“And what are you doing to do?” Danny asked as he got up for the bed to collect his clothes.

“I’ll just wait for you to get back,” Steve said.

“At least put some clothes on,” Danny said as he started pulling his pants on. “I am not having my children see you naked.”

Steve smiled. “What about you?”

Danny pointed at Steve. “That is different and we will discuss that later.”

“In detail?” Steve asked.

“Yes,” Danny said, trying to avert his gaze. “Animal.”

“Good. I like detail,” Steve grinned.

Danny was soon dressed and out of the door. Steve got up more slowly. After he had had a quick wash and pulled on some clothes he decided to make a call to Chin. They still had Brockman in custody and Steve needed him to stay there. They didn’t really want Brockman going and alerting the Council about their investigation.

“He’s still there, right?” Steve asked.

“Yeah, he’s been there all night.”

“Good, keep him there with the cameras on,” Steve said. He was hoping that Danny was right and Brockman wouldn’t risk exposure of their kind to escape. As long as the cameras were on he hoped Brockman wouldn’t take the risk.

“Will do. Have a good weekend,” Chin said with a knowing tone.

“Oh, we will,” Steve said. “Thanks, Chin.”

It didn’t seem long after that when Steve heard Danny’s car pulling up. It was ridiculous to be nervous, he knew Grace and Charlie, they’d been here before, and yet for some reason it was different this time. He hadn’t seen them since the conversion and now he and Danny were together. That gave a different angle to things.

Steve opened the door just as Danny and the kids reached it. He smiled at Danny and then turned his attention to the kids.

“Hi, Gracie. Hi, Charlie,” he said. “Come on in.”

Grace immediately came forward and hugged him. “Uncle Steve.”

Though it felt a little awkward Steve hugged her back firmly. There was another layer to the hug, a magical layer. It was as if he was embracing Grace’s magical self. It was very different to the way he touched Danny this was a touch that spoke of family.

“Hi, Uncle Steve!” Charlie chorused from lower down.

Grace released Steve from the hug so he could kneel down to Charlie’s level. He then hugged Charlie. The same feeling of family was there. It was strange but pleasant. He guessed that the kids didn’t hug everyone like this.

“You feel like, Danno,” Charlie pronounced.

“I do?” Steve asked.

Charlie nodded.

“That’s a good thing, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay, can I get in here?” Danny asked as he stood in the doorway.

Charlie moved back to stand with Grace and Steve gave Danny a quick hug. He wasn’t really sure what the rules were with kissing your partner in front of his kids, so Steve decided discretion was probably best. He turned back to the kids, both of whom were smiling as they stood inside the living room. He heard Danny close the door behind him.

It was then that Steve noticed that Grace had a glow very similar to Danny’s. It was bright but not quite as bright. Charlie though had a strange glow. It seemed to flicker from dull to bright, never quite settling. It was very different to the calm stable glow Grace exhibited. Maybe it was because Charlie was younger.

“So, what do you kids want to do?” Steve asked.

Charlie grinned and waved a hand in a magical gesture. It lacked finesse but it worked and a small glowing ball of magic appeared. “Catch!” Charlie said, and he sent it flying it around the room. 

It was mesmerising to watch it bounce around the room, flying across furniture and hitting walls, bouncing right off them. Steve was so caught up in watching it he was taken by surprise when it headed right toward him. He wasn’t sure exactly how to catch it so held out his hands, just as the ball hit him in the chest and knocked him backwards.

Luckily Steve managed to keep his balance and grabbed the ball. It wasn’t like grabbing a physical ball. It required dealing with it on the magical level. It felt warm and it was almost vibrating in his hands. He just wasn’t entirely sure what to do it.

Charlie was smiling though and looked very pleased with Steve’s catching skills.

“Not bad,” Danny said. “I mean you didn’t fall over.”

With a grin, Steve threw the ball toward his partner but Danny’s reflexes when it came to catching magical balls were pretty good and Danny caught it easily.

“Really, Steve?” Danny shifted the ball from hand to hand, as easily as he could do with a baseball.

Grace was grinning. “Come on, Dad, Uncle Steve needs the practice.”

“Gracie!” Steve said. He liked this, this family teasing. It didn’t mean he wasn’t a little insulted though. “You don’t think I could beat your Dad?”

“Only one way to find out,” Grace said, looking at her father.

Danny smiled and looked at Steve. “You want to try this?” he asked.

Steve looked at the glowing ball and then looked at Danny. “Bring it on, Williams,” he said

Charlie looked delighted and he let out a giggle as he went to sit on the couch.

Danny threw the ball, not toward Steve, but instead toward the wall. That manoeuvre caught Steve by surprise, which was probably the intention since the ball bounced off one wall, then went back through another, only to reappear by coming up the floor right in front of Steve who stumbled a little as the ball then bounced off the ceiling and Steve managed to catch it.

“How do you get it to do that?” Steve asked.

“You give it a bit of magic,” Grace said. “Like an enchantment.”

“Okay,” Steve said, feeling the ball glow and pulsate in his hands.

“You give it a bit of magic and let it do something, like getting it to slip,” Danny said, which as an explanation made more sense. “It’s not an enchantment and we are not wizards, Grace.”

“It sounds cooler though,” Grace said.

Maybe it did but the idea of adding magic to a ball and slipping it in a pattern made more sense to Steve. And slipping was something he was good at. He’d just never slipped a literal ball of magic before. Still, Danny was looking at him expectantly.

Steve tried to picture the route he wanted the ball to go. It wasn’t easy but once he had a fair idea he gave the ball a little magical push as he threw it upward to the celling. As he hoped the golden ball disappeared as it hit the ceiling. Now Steve hoped it would reappear where he wanted.

There was a long wait as Grace and Charlie looked around trying to work out where the ball would reappear from. Danny though looked confident though he was making no effort to move to where he thought the ball would reappear.

Then the ball reappeared through the door. For a split-second Steve thought he had fooled Danny but his partner had an arm out and stepped slightly to the side to catch it. Steve’s attempt to take Danny by surprise and land the ball square in his back had failed, this time anyway.

“That was good, Steve,” Danny replied. “I mean it wasn’t surprising but I’ve playing this since I was younger than Charlie.”

“Auntie Stella use to beat him,” Grace said.

“Not all the time.” Danny threw the ball straightforwardly to Grace who easily caught it. “Okay, me and Charlie versus you and Uncle Steve?”

“What do you think, Uncle Steve?”

Steve thought about it but really it was a no brainer. Here he was with a newly discovered magical side to his family, of course he had to take advantage. “Loser makes dinner?” he asked.

“Deal,” Danny said. “Even though I’m not sure I want to subject us to your cooking.”

“So, you’ll let us win?” Steve asked.

Grace had that pleading look on her face as she came and stood next to Steve.

“What do you think, Charlie, should we let them win?” Danny asked looking at his son who leapt up from the couch.

“No,” Charlie replied.

“Give it your best shot,” Danny said.

Grace threw the ball to Steve. As he held it Steve could feel that she’d added something to it. What he wasn’t really sure but he trusted her and threw it at the wall. The ball this time bounced off the wall and then the floor and then the celling so fast it was a golden blur. Charlie ran after it as it zoomed around the room but he wasn’t close to catching it.

Danny joined it and managed to intercept the ball though it still packed a big enough punch to knock Danny into the couch. Where he sat holding the ball as Charlie laughed.

“Whose side are you on?” he asked his son.

“Do it again,” Charlie said, bouncing around.

Danny handed Charlie the ball. “Okay, you try.”

With the ball in hand Charlie gave it a good throw. The ball was less energetic than it had been when Grace had thrown it but it was still hard to catch. Steve just about managed it as he nearly tripped on the stairs.

“One all?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Danny agreed. “Your serve, Steve.”

The game went on like that for what seemed like hours. Steve found out through trial and error that different magical energy changed the way the ball behaved. It slipped and bounced and zoomed around the room and the game then spilled out across the whole house, upstairs, in the bedrooms, downstairs in the kitchen.

Eventually the ball got ever smaller as the magical energy wasn’t enough to keep it coherent. Unfortunately, the score was still tied when the ball finally died with a final splutter of magic and completely disappeared.

“Aww,” Charlie said.

“So who’s cooking you or me?” Steve asked Danny.

“I’m cooking, you’re assisting. I just hope you’ve got more kitchen utensils than knives,” Danny said.

In the end, they made pasta with a simple tomato sauce. The reasons were twofold. One it was quick and the kids were complaining they were hungry, and two Steve’s cupboards were rather bare. He made a mental note that he and Danny should probably go shopping to stock up. And it seemed to make sense, going shopping with Danny.

Not that the cooking had gone off entirely without argument.

“And you don’t microwave pasta,” Danny told Steve in no uncertain terms. 

“I can cook pasta, Danny,” Steve replied.

“Really. Do you throw at the wall too?”

“Isn’t that how you’re supposed to tell if it’s cooked?”

Eventually they sat down for their meal and Steve found himself enjoying the family atmosphere. Of course, he’d eaten with Danny and the kids before but this was different. This was after they’d had a game of magical ball where all of them had had a good time doing something that was familiar and yet new. Steve had enjoyed it very much.

Afterwards Danny took the dishes through into the kitchen whilst Grace kept Charlie occupied with some crayons and paper. Steve decided to join Danny in the kitchen, there was something he needed to ask about Charlie.

“Everything okay out there?” Danny asked as he rinsed the plates.

Steve nodded. “Yeah, Danny. Listen I need to ask you, Charlie’s glow it’s…I mean I don’t want to say this but it looks a little off.”

Danny stopped rinsing and put the plate he had in his hand down. “That’s because it is. And that is Rachel’s fault.”

“Because she never told you about your son?” Steve guessed.

“Okay, magical being kids? They need a lot of magic contact from birth. It’s important. It’s why I moved here because Grace needed that contact too even though she was older,” Danny paused. “Charlie had no adult magical contact at all until he got sick. Then he needed a bone marrow transplant.”

“That’s why you were the better match? And why Grace wasn’t?” Steve asked. He presumed that Grace being an immature magical being meant her human body might not have been quite compatible with her brother’s.

“Yes, because I’m a magical adult and Grace is not. But putting bone marrow from a human body occupied by a magical adult into a kid’s…” Danny trailed off as he waved a hand.

“It’s similar to what happened to me and the liver?”

“No,” Danny said, rather firmly. “Charlie is magically related, like in a genetic sense. You are not. And because Charlie’s magic self comes directly from me,” Danny pointed to himself, “it’s important he had contact with the original magical source. Thanks to Rachel he did not get that so his magic body is weirdly developed. By the time he’s an adult it should settle down but until then he’s got a power imbalance and his reserves aren’t always big enough for what he wants to do.”

Steve thought that sounded, well, awful. “I’m sorry, Danny. I had no idea.”

“Of course you didn’t,” Danny said, surprised Steve would even mention that. “But having contact with you that’s probably going to help him.”

“You think so?” Steve hoped it would. He knew what Danny had sacrificed for Charlie to be able to help, even just a little bit, meant a lot to Steve.

“He needs contact with magical adults and although Eric is technically an adult…”

“He’s not the most mature?” Steve finished.

“No, now neither are you…”

Steve interrupted. “I’m very mature.”

“You have the slipping addiction of a toddler.”

“Hey, you have to use our talents when they are given to you.”

“Within reason,” Danny protested. “Charlie isn’t good at slipping and I don’t want to encourage him.”

Steve remembered what could lurk on other layers and the dangers posed to young magical beings like Charlie. “Okay. What about surfing?”

“You’re not encouraging him with that either.”

“He could have a talent for it,” Steve suggested. 

“Or he could have a better talent something safe like being great at poker.”

Steve smiled. “So, poker’s not out as an option?”

“No, but considering how awful you are at poker you probably shouldn’t be teaching anyone.”

“I’m not terrible at poker!” Steve said. He wasn’t the worst at their regular poker nights anyway. Lou was far worse and Jerry wasn’t great at it either, not to mention Kamekona and his stakes of shrimp dollars.

“Name one time you’ve beaten me. Go ahead,” Danny said, standing by the sink with his arms folded.

“Okay, but there’s always next game,” Steve said. He came to stand close to Danny and lowered his voice. “Anyway, you were saying magical contact with me would help Charlie? You trust me like that with your son?”

“Is this a trick question or are you fishing for compliments? Of course I trust you,” Danny said, as if it was the most natural thing in the world. He unfolded his arms and let his hand drift closer to Steve’s.

“That means a lot, Danny,” Steve said, giving Danny’s hand a squeeze. 

“Yeah, well, that’s how it is so…” Danny shrugged.

“Are you sure the surfing’s out? You now I’ve got a spare board out the back.”

Danny held up a finger. “Steven. No.”

“All right.”

Hours later the afternoon turned into evening and eventually it crept up to Charlie’s bedtime. Steve had set up the spare room in case Danny or his kids ever needed to stay over so it was easy enough to get Charlie settled. Of course, Steve had been easily incorporated into the bedtime routine.

Charlie was tucked up in bed and clearly sleepy. He yawned and then offered Steve and Danny standing by the bed a sleepy smile. “I had a good time today, Daddy, with you and Uncle Steve.”

Danny knelt down and stroked Charlie’s hair. “Good. Now are you going to go to sleep?”

Charlie nodded. “Yeah.”

“Okay, buddy. I love you,” Danny said.

Steve still loved how gentle and tender Danny was with his kids. Charlie already had his eyes closed. Steve could well believe that after exercising his magic all day it had worn Charlie out. He knew the feeling. He and Danny walked to the door with Steve turning out the light, mainly because he knew where the light switch was.

“Night, Charlie,” Danny said. 

Steve had flicked the light switch so it was dark in the room but Charlie still managed a sleepy goodbye. “Night, Danno. Night, Uncle Steve.”

Once they headed back downstairs they found Grace on the chair watching TV. They sat down together on the couch and, for a while, nothing was really said. The programme Grace was watching didn’t make a lot of sense to Steve but when the commercials came on he saw Grace mute the TV and she turned to face them, looking serious.

“So, are you going to get married?” she asked.

That had not been the question that Steve had expected. And apparently neither had Danny.

“Married? Us? Why would you ask that?” Danny asked, sounding as panicky as any father whose teenage daughter had just asked when he was marrying his very recently acquired boyfriend.

Grace had a look of disbelief. “Because you’re a Merged Pair? I’m a teenager, Dad, I know one when I see one.”

“You’re growing up too fast,” Danny muttered turning away from Grace’s gaze. “I don’t know... I mean… do we need to? Steve?” he asked, turning to Steve.

Steve was sure that the panicked look in his partner’s eyes was echoed in his own. He hadn’t really thought about marriage. There had been a lot more to deal with than that.  “I erm… I don’t know. I mean I don’t know how these things go. We don’t need to get married.”

Danny seemed to relax a little. “That’s right we don’t need to.”

“Why not?” Grace said, looking surprisingly disappointed for someone who remembered the pain of her parents’ marriage breaking up.  

“Because what we have, me and Uncle Steve, is more than just words. It’s…” Danny waved a hand.

“What?” Grace asked.

To Steve what they had was not easy to describe in words. It was so based in emotion and feelings that it wasn’t easy to translate. “Danno has a point I mean I feel more than married to him, right now. We don’t need a wedding or to say words out loud.”

“Grandma’s probably going to be disappointed then,” Grace said, casually.

“Don’t start conspiring with her,” Danny said and then he paused. “You told her already, didn’t you?”

Grace smiled a little and didn’t meet her father’s gaze. “I might have texted her. It’s cool. She said Uncle Steve was a catch.”

“He was the catch? What about me? I’m a catch too,” Danny sounded almost offended as he shifted on the couch.

Steve smiled. “Well you’re something, Danny.”

“Oh, I see,” Danny said, turning to his partner. “This means you can deal with my mother when she starts asking about a wedding.”

“She’d want us to get married?” Steve asked. Not that he was particularly envisioning a wedding with flowers and cake himself, he and Danny really didn’t need it, but he saw nothing wrong with the concept.

“She’d just want the excuse to get dressed up and then show you off as her very attractive son-in-law,” Danny said.

“What about your sisters’ husbands?” Steve asked. He was already wondering if Danny had ever shown him any pictures. Weirdly he didn’t think he had.

Grace sniggered.

“Let’s just say their taste in men was not as good as mine,” Danny said.

“Really?”

Danny elbowed him. “Yes, really. Stop fishing for compliments again.”

Steve leaned in for a kiss. “Can I fish for something else?”

“That was a terrible come on,” Danny grumbled, moving closer to Steve’s lips.

For a moment, they forget that Grace was there. Until she suddenly coughed.

“I’m going to check on Charlie,” Grace said, getting up and going upstairs without saying anything else. She had practically run up the stairs in fact.

Steve looked at the stairs. He didn’t think he’d seen Grace move so quickly before. “Did we scare her off?”

“Would you rather she stayed here and watched?” Danny asked. “Because my fourteen year old daughter watching me kiss my…”

“Incredibly attractive boyfriend?” Steve said, as he leaned back in for a kiss. He was aware both he and Danny were glowing a little brighter now too.

“…is not something I need to subject her too, okay?” Danny said.

“Okay, but she’s gone now so…” Steve said. He was ready for the making out but Danny, being Danny, couldn’t quite let it go yet.

“I’m just saying this is a lot for her for take in.”

Steve sighed. “I know that, Danny, but that doesn’t mean celibacy.”

“Fine, you win,” Danny said, and finally moved in for the kiss.

Steve would have said ‘I love you too, Danny’ but he was happily muffled by Danny’s lips.


	4. Chapter 4

It wasn’t often that Danny could say he’d had a really great weekend but this had certainly been one. He enjoyed any weekends he got to spend with his kids, and he enjoyed the weekends he spent with Steve, but now he had everything. He’d had a weekend with his magical being kids and more than that he’d got to do normal magical family things with them and another person.

He was pretty sure that Steve would never quite understand that that meant to him. For years he’d missed the family dynamic. Sure, he had loved Rachel a lot, and he had no regrets about a relationship that had given him two great kids, but she never fully understood the magic side of things. It was regretful that in the end the magic had been just another wedge between them.

This thing between he and Steve was new and at the same time old. Maybe things wouldn’t have changed had it not been for the transplant and Steve’s forced conversion but that was just a maybe. What they had now was a certain future. Chin and Kono might well talk about fate and Danny mostly had a hard time believing in it but when it came to him and Steve maybe they had a point.

Now the kids had gone back to their mother’s and it was just him and Steve sat on the couch.

“This was a great weekend, Danny,” Steve said, stretching and not so subtly putting an arm around Danny. How had he ever got the nickname ‘Smooth Dog’? 

“Yeah it was,” Danny replied, letting himself relax a little into Steve’s side.

“Are you agreeing with me?” Steve asked, looking at Danny a little surprised

“Is that so hard to believe?”

“When the last time we agreed on anything?”

Danny was struggling to find an exact moment and shifted about a bit on the couch. The thing was even when they disagreed it didn’t feel like they were disagreeing. “We agree about plenty of things. The important stuff.”

“The important stuff? Like what?” Steve asked.

“That football is a fantastic sport and that I have a very nice car,” Danny said. Not the best examples but they were true.

Steve smiled. “You do have a nice car. Drives really well.”

“Which you would know about because you always drive my car,” Danny said.

“Not always, I mean you drive to and from work.”

Okay so this conversation was not proceeding as Danny might have hoped. “Anyway, my point is we agree on the important stuff. And Charlie and Grace, you agree they’re good kids,” Danny said as a statement rather than a question.

“They’re great kids,” Steve agreed.

“Exactly. Now have you finished analysing our relationship?” Danny asked. It didn’t matter what exactly he and Steve agreed on. Their opinions just worked together, and worked really well.

“It wasn’t analysis but yes. And we agree this was a great weekend?”

“We do,” Danny said.

There was a pause where nothing needed to be said because sometimes you didn’t need words. Danny just enjoyed being next to Steve. He could feel all of him, the firmness of his human body, the warmth of his magical one. It made him feel content in a way he hadn’t before. He could relax completely with Steve and be himself, all of himself, and that just made his feelings for Steve stronger.

Eventually Steve spoke up, allowing a natural question into the silence. “Was it like this for you, growing up?”

“What? Like...? With magic in the house all the time?” Danny asked, trying to clarify what this was.

“Yeah. I mean it must have driven your parents crazy. Two kids are exhausting I can’t imagine what four was like,” Steve said, he looked tired, but a happy tired, Danny thought.

“It did but you know they knew we were talented so they were okay with it,” Danny shrugged, even under Steve’s arm. “It was normal for us. I mean we had to be careful because some of our neighbours were human but that was part of the fun, you know?”

Steve didn’t answer the rhetorical question but asked on that Danny was surprised he hadn’t touched on before. “So, when did you know you wanted to be an Enforcer? What?”

Danny’s ‘this is not an easy answer’ face was perhaps a bit too obvious for Steve. But he had been thinking about how he could be totally himself with Steve, so maybe telling him this wouldn’t be so bad. “You don’t get to choose to be an Enforcer, it chooses you.”

“Chooses you? How?”

“When I was ten years old I blew out a set of street lights,” Danny said. 

“Eric mentioned that.”

He had a long time ago, a magical lifetime ago as far as Steve was concerned, but Steve had remembered it clearly. That had never been the full story though. Now Danny felt able to share the rest. “What he didn’t tell you was that I did it to stop a wyrm that was going after my baby sister.”

“Bridget?”

Danny carried on. He had to get this out, it was hard to remember being a terrified kid. “She was four years old and we were out playing. It started to go dark and Mom wanted us to come inside the house, but we were having too much fun so we slipped down a layer. And everything’s okay until this wyrm appears. It’s just a level two, it couldn’t hurt an adult but it could hurt us, and it went after Bridget so I just got between her and it and then I punched it. My Mom knew there was something wrong and she appeared, grabbed us, slipped us back, and then she told us all the streetlights were out.”

He left out the part where Bridget had screamed in such cold terror that he hadn’t even thought of his own safety. Danny didn’t need to tell Steve about the overriding need to protect his sister, even at the risk to his own life. He didn’t tell Steve about the scream his mother had let out when her babies had been in mortal danger.

“You did that?” Steve’s question brought Danny back from his thoughts.

“Yeah, from down a layer. I was ten I wasn’t meant to be able to do that. Next day a senior Enforcer shows up on the doorstep and I get identified as an Enforcer talent.” Danny suspected his father had been the one to make the call.

“You were ten years old.”

“I know, but you start young,” Danny said. Leaving out the part where his parents had argued like crazy for days afterwards. His mother arguing he was too young and his father, an Enforcer himself, arguing Danny was talented and had to be nurtured. “And I didn’t mind. I could protect my baby sister, my brother. Stella never protection because she was more powerful than I’ll ever be, even as a kid.”

“But she didn’t end up as an Enforcer,” Steve said.

“Stella works on a different level. She’s too talented to be an Enforcer,” Danny replied. Stella was something not easily explainable. You only had to know where Eric had come from to realise that even among magical beings she was a step above. 

“Thank you, Danny, for telling me all this,” Steve said, squeezing his shoulder a little.

“Yeah well, I’ve told you so... that’s that,” Danny said. It felt good to get it out. He wondered if Steve had picked up on the things he hadn’t talked about. The feelings and emotion that Danny would never be able to put into words. There was a little brush of a magical body against his own and he figured maybe Steve had.

“I appreciate it, Danny. This is your life and has been since you were a kid. I want to know about this stuff,” Steve said. Then he paused. “So, do I need to take an oath to be an Enforcer?”

Danny smiled. He knew what Steve was trying to do and he appreciated it. “I hate to break it to your love of ceremony but no. When you’re an Enforcer you just are one.”

“And I am one?”

“Yes, Steve, you are,” Danny said, giving Steve a gentle prod. “Now are we going to bed?” he asked getting up from the couch. He already missed Steve’s warmth but, well, a bed was more comfortable.

“To bed or to bed?” Steve asked, varying the words slightly.

“To bed,” Danny said. “Without pants.”

“Do you ever wear your pants in bed, Danny?” Steve asked, getting up from the couch and stealing a quick kiss.

“Just get up there,” Danny said, putting a hand on Steve’s shoulder and playfully pushing him toward the stairs.

 

It was perhaps inevitable that such a great weekend would mean that the start of the week would suck rather more than usual, and Danny was right in his thinking. As soon as they got into HQ Danny could tell there was something wrong. Lou and Jerry weren’t around, which meant magic could be easily discussed without human eavesdropping, and Chin and Kono were looking more serious than they usually did.

“How’s our guest?” Steve asked, clearly looking forward to having another go round with Brockman.

Chin turned to them. His expression was tight and guarded. “We had to let him go.”

Danny had had a feeling they would say that.

“What? Why?” Steve asked, confused. He was never a fan of politics.

“Because a member of your Council made some very specific threats if we didn’t,” Chin replied.

That didn’t surprise Danny. Observers had political connections that ran deep and were as extensive as spider webs. Brockman was a prime example of that. Danny had hoped that it would be a few days before the Observer’s presence was missed and then traced but they had been out of luck. Brockman must have some powerful connections.

“When was he released?” Danny asked, it would be good to know how much if a head start the guy had.

“A couple of hours ago. He’s probably long gone by now,” Kono said.

“And he’s probably already telling the Council what happened so we’re running out of time,” Danny said. They had some Council backing with their investigation but Observers were much more persuasive than poor old Enforcers, especially Enforcers working with Mer.

“Have you got anything new?” Steve asked, hopefully.

Chin tapped keys on the computer and brought up some information on the screen. Basic information, dates, names, and contacts. “Luckily, yes,” he said. “We reached out to the Mer community about Hannah and it turns out our victim was very well regarded by the Mer who knew her.”

Danny had not been expecting that news. “She was?”

“Yeah. She helped out with charities, shared intel about the magical being community. She protected several families personally,” Kono said, with admiration in her voice.

“But she was one of us,” Danny said. He had never heard of one of their kind being that close to any sort of earth magic community before.

“I know it’s very rare but Ms Chang had ‘a way about her’ according to the people we spoke to,” Chin said.

Steve frowned, the way he did when he had an idea or a thought. “What if she’d changed sides?” he said.

“Changed sides?” Danny wasn’t sure he understood what Steve was alluding to.

“What if her primary goal wasn’t to spy on the Mer community but to protect them from spying?” Steve said, one arm folded the other indicating the screen where Hannah Chang’s picture stared out at them. “Think about it. Her mother held the job before her, there’s history there. If she’s spying on the Mer she doesn’t have to feed the correct intel back to her handler. She gives them just enough to keep them satisfied but that’s it.”

It made perfect sense. “She’s protecting them by not playing the Council’s games,” Danny said. He had to admire her for that. It couldn’t have been easy balancing the needs of a community against her own kind but Hannah Chang had done it successfully for years.

“Exactly,” Steve said. “And what if she found something out that was a threat to the Mer community?”

“A threat that came from our community,” Danny replied.

“That’s it,” Steve said with a slight smile as the puzzle pieces started to fit together. “That’s the motive for her being murdered. She found out something a magical being was planning to do to the Mer community and decided to protect them from it.”

“Except that she talked to Brockman who probably told the Council,” Danny said. He was surprised Hannah had trusted the Observer that much but if something was urgent or imminent maybe she hadn’t had a choice.

“Do you think your Council could be behind this?” Chin asked.

“Maybe not the Council itself but someone on it,” Danny said. The whole Council could have been behind it but this murder had been sloppy, a touch of the personal about it. The Council would never have sanctioned a hit like that but a disgruntled Council member could have taken things into their own hands.

“How many suspects does that give us?” Steve asked.

“If you want to factor in the west coast council we’re talking dozens,” Danny said, with a hint of a sigh. The answer was too many. “Our politics is getting more and more crowded.”

“And maybe that’s the issue,” Steve said. 

“Are your kind becoming more sympathetic toward magic channelling humans in general?” Chin asked. His hands were relaxed on the table but there was still tension in his stance as he asked the question.

“I think so,” Danny said. He hoped so. “I mean it was never a problem back in Jersey and I stay out of politics as much as possible, but yeah there were people who felt that magical channelling humans weren’t really a threat.”

“And some disagreed?” Chin said.

“Yes, and the two sides have basically been at stalemate since. There’s those who think we should wipe out magic humans and those that think we should make them our allies,” Danny said, moving his hands around to indicate the two sides.

“Which side are you on?” Kono asked, chin up and defiant.

“I am on the side of common sense,” Danny said. “Which is that you guys are not a threat to us and really it makes more sense for us to be allies.” Since moving to Hawaii this particular belief has strengthened. Sure, a lot of the local community shunned him worse than an average haole but Chin and Kono had worked with him and there was a mutual respect there. 

“What about you, boss?” Kono asked, turning to Steve.

“Well, I think it’s safe to say Danny and I actually agree about this,” Steve said. He caught Danny’s gaze and Danny couldn’t help but meet it. He and Steve were on the same magical page, and yes it did give him a bit of a thrill to see the magic dancing in Steve’s eyes. 

Chin coughed slightly. “Do you have any idea who could be behind this?”

“Like I said I stay out of politics but I can narrow it down, get some names,” Danny said. He didn’t have Observer levels of contacts but he had a few that might know someone who did. Now he knew the sort of person they were looking for this time he should be able to get some names. 

“You think it’s a Council member?” Steve asked.

“It fits with the energy Eric identified, yeah,” Danny said. 

“Okay, so let’s work that theory and find some suspects,” Steve suggested. 

“You know we are going to piss a lot of people off doing this?” Danny said, almost as a rhetorical question. Steven J McGarrett had been doing that since he’d come back to Hawaii, maybe even before that.

“I know,” Steve said with a grin.

“I love you, did I mention that?” Danny said. The words just came out, casually, naturally and he didn’t over analyse them afterward. He couldn’t help it. Steve was just... Steve.

Steve leaned in, just enough to make Danny’s glow increase and he was glad Kono and Chin couldn’t see it. “You might have said that this morning, yes.”

For a moment Danny was sure that Steve was going to kiss him and he didn’t mind. This thing between them was so new it was proving to be a big distraction. It took both a cough from Chin and a giggle from Kono to make them stop.

“What? Sorry,” Steve said, a little sheepishly. He leaned down and said, loud enough for their colleagues to hear. “I love you too, by the way. So, let’s find ourselves some suspects.”

“Absolutely,” Danny agreed. 

 

It took a lot of phone calls but eventually Danny was able to track down some names. He’d called in a few favours, impressed others enough to get them to give something up. It wasn’t easy, especially given the fact the suspect was likely to be a power player in their world but the Enforcer community were not fans of the Council in general which made things a little easier. Unfortunately, it also meant they were likely to identify suspects based on general dislike rather than anything more concrete.

With the list of names in hand he headed out of his office to where the others were clustered around the computer. The screen showed phone numbers, presumably they were trying to trace Hannah Chang’s calls. Danny put the list, hastily scribbled down whilst he was on the phone, on the computer table.

“Okay, so I’ve got half a dozen suspects. And that’s narrowed down,” Danny said. He’d tried to filter out the names more obviously suggested out of pure dislike. 

“That’s going to take too much time to go through,” Steve said, picking up the list and studying it.

Danny was about to reply that really, they had no other choice when Eric came in, white lab coat gleaming nearly as hard as his natural glow, which suggested he had something. In his hand was clutched a plain looking black book. A diary maybe? 

“Hey guys,” Eric said as he came up to the computer.

“Hi, Eric. Do you have something?” Steve asked, his gaze on the diary book thing Eric was carrying.

Eric leaned forward. “I think I know what our bad guy might be planning.”

“How?” Danny asked.

“I was looking through some of Hannah Chang’s stuff from the crime scene and I found this,” Eric said, holding up the book. “Her journal.”

“A journal?” Danny asked. “Did it have anything in it?”

“Yeah, it has notes,” Eric said, bringing it down and flickering through the pages. It looked like it had been well used. “Now I think it’s some weird poetry metaphorical code.”

“Okay, so read us some,” Danny said.

Eric flicked through some more pages, clearly looking for something. He flicked through to the back third of the journal. He found the page and cleared his throat, a little overdramatically to Danny’s mind. “‘And on the dawn of the day the box was opened, the waves were unleashed and the beach was cleansed.’”

“That’s it?” Danny asked. He had been expecting something more than a vague metaphor for a bad thing happening. They already knew about that.

“I think it’s referring to a wave bomb,” Eric said. 

Danny could feel himself actually shudder. He remembered his parents’ tales about wave bombs and the devastation they could cause.

“A magical wave bomb?” Steve asked.

“Yeah. Each day you put a little bit of magical energy in. Overtime it builds up. If you built up enough of it and then unleash it you’ll do a lot of damage to any magically inclined humans,” Eric said, averting his gaze from Chin and Kono.

There was a certain amount of shame Danny felt too. His family might never have used wave bombs but he knew that his kind had. They had been used several times against earth magic humans and the results had not been pleasant. There was a reason his sister Stella referred to the use of wave bombs as a war crime.

“Because our magic is incompatible so it would interfere with the conduits Mer use to access the earth magic?” Steve asked. As it dawned on him what a wave bomb was and what it could do his face changed to genuine distress. The knowledge seeped in but processing it took longer.

“Exactly. They were used in the magic wars but on a much smaller scale,” Eric said, restrained for him. “The one mentioned in here she describes as ‘A box as big as the home in which it is built cover the land like a sore’,” Eric said, tracing the words on the page with his finger.

“That could be as big as an island,” Chin said. 

The implications of that were barely worth thinking about. Something like that could permanently disrupt the earth magic of the entire Mer population of Hawaii.

“That is a hell of a lot of planning. I mean the reason they used smaller ones was because there wasn’t time to build up that much energy,” Danny said. To do that someone must really, really hate earth magic humans.

“How long would it take to build one big enough to do some serious damage?” Steve asked. The SEAL mask had appeared and he was now back to analysing threats.

“Decades. It would take a couple of human lifetimes,” Eric said.

“So whoever has been planning this has been planning it for a long time,” Steve said.

“And they might not be the first one involved,” Danny said. Politics often got passed down family lines. A determined parent could have encouraged their children, or even grandchildren, to help create a deadly family legacy long after they had left the human world.

“Do any of our suspects have a link that far back?” Steve asked.

There was a name Danny kept coming back to. It only took a quick glance on his list to confirm what Danny already thought. “David Whitley.”

“The one who was with the council lady when I was converted?” Steve asked.

“Yeah,” Danny confirmed. “He’s a lesser member on the council but he comes from a very anti earth magic family. And his father was head of the West Coast Council who employed Hannah Chang’s mother.”

Danny hadn’t known any of this before speaking to a friend back in Jersey who had a cousin on the west coast who paid more attention to who was who on which council. There were several families with a long anti-magic history but David’s was a particularly prominent one.

“He’s got to be the one,” Steve said.

Danny hung his head. “And it makes sense. He probably pushed Carol for the conversion,” he said. He’d known the conversion had been rushed but he’d assumed it was just because the Council knew Steve would be an asset. Now though it was apparent that perhaps it had another purpose.

Chin realised this too. “So you’d be distracted and he could carry out his plan,” he said.

It had worked too. Danny had been caught up with Steve. If it hadn’t been for Steve’s insistence they wouldn’t have started investigating Hannah Chang’s death so quickly, and by the time they had who knew what could have happened in the meantime. Thankfully Steve had a strong sense of duty, without it they might not have known any of this.

“Well that probably means it’s imminent,” Steve said. “The question is where is the bomb?”

“It could be underneath us,” Eric said. “You want to disrupt Mer magic you’d have to have at least some of it at sea.”

“Right, but he has to be able to access it to add more energy,” Danny pointed out. “And he has to avoid being seen.”

“A cave system,” Steve said. “It would provide sea access and would conceal any magic energy.”

“We need to narrow it down,” Chin said.

“If you wanted a magic wave bomb to do maximum damage where would you put it?” Steve asked Danny.

Not that Danny ever would but he had the passed on knowledge of a lot of battles between earth magic humans and his own kind. “If you really wanted to disrupt earth magic you’d put it near in a sacred place to them. Like bombing a church.”

Chin quickly typed something on the computer and then swiped an image and information up onto the screen. “Kaneana Cave. According one legend it was where mankind was born.”

“Or Mer kind,” Steve said. 

“It’s also got a lot of smaller cave systems that are too considered too dangerous for tourists,” Kono pointed out. 

“That’s got to be it,” Steve said, pointing at the screen. “That’s got to be where he’s got the bomb.”

Danny turned to his nephew. “Eric, I need you to contact the Enforcer encampment back in Jersey and tell them we might need back up.”

“Why Jersey?” Chin asked.

“Because I know we can trust those guys,” Danny said. He had never come across an anti-magic opinion among any of his Jersey colleagues. “I don’t trust the West Coast Council or their Enforcers.”

“I’m on it,” Eric said. “Can I use your phone?”

“Yes!” Danny said.

“Awesome,” Eric said and he went off to Danny’s office.

“Just don’t touch anything else!” Danny yelled after him. All he got in response was a wave of Eric’s arm.

“We to need to move now,” Steve said, already stepping away from the table ready to race there. “With Brockman gone David’s going to know he’s running out of time.”

“Okay, but Chin and Kono need to stay here,” Danny said, even as his colleagues started to move.

Kono smiled. “Come on, brah.”

“Look, I know you guys are great at your job but that much magical energy in one place is probably going to hurt you even if you don’t get that close to it,” Danny said. 

“Danny’s right,” Steve said. “You monitor things from here. Alert your authorities let them know what we’ve found out.”

“All right,” Chin said. “Be careful. You need anything let us know.”

“We will,” Steve said. “Come on, Danny.”

Danny was nervous about what they were about to step into. If things were as bad as he suspected there was a high chance Steve’s magical life would be over before it had really had a chance. He hoped he was wrong but he couldn’t help but feel worried. This wasn’t a threat that he’d ever had to deal with and truthfully, he wasn’t sure how it was going it work out.

There was of course also the one thing he hadn’t told Steve There was still one last secret between them. The one reason he didn’t want either of them to die. He couldn’t tell Steve because what they had was good and if the last few days were their last together then Danny had to say at least he died happy.

 

As they drove to the caves Steve noticed Danny was quiet and that was never a good thing. It usually meant that he was worrying, which was of course a natural state of being for Danny, but not talking about it meant he was over-analysing and bottling up his worries and concerns and Steve didn’t like that.

“Are you alright?” he asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Danny said, glancing out of the window. “We’re heading off to try and defeat an evil Council member with a magical wave bomb that we have no clue how to stop. What could go wrong?”

“You don’t know how to stop the bomb?” Steve asked. He’d assumed Danny would know. The shared knowledge only went so far but he guessed that it might have been covered as part of Danny’s Enforcer training.

“I know that if we can stop David then we can stop him activating that magical energy but I don’t know how we get rid of that magical energy without hurting the Mer population. It’s not like a human bomb with explosives, magical energy is unpredictable,” Danny replied as he looked at Steve.

“Would the Council know how to stop t?”

“Hopefully yes, but these bombs were never designed to be stopped,” Danny said.

“No-one’s ever defused one before?” Steve asked. Surely it must have come up at some point. He knew they had been used over the history of their kind, even if their use had been phased out over the last century or so.

“You can’t even call it defusing because you need to get rid of the whole thing and, no, I don’t think anyone ever has.”

Just because someone hadn’t done that in the past didn’t mean it couldn’t be done, Steve thought. “There has to be a way.”

“I’m sure there is a way. I just don’t know what way doesn’t end in us dying. Or at least our bodies.”

“What happens when we die?” Steve asked. The knowledge he’d got was rather vague about it.

“Technically we can’t die because magical beings don’t die like humans but human bodies can. We just end up being sent back to magical realm where we came from,” Danny said.

“What’s it like?” Steve asked. He had a rough impression, but that was based on feelings, emotions, and not anything descriptive.

“I don’t really know because I was created around the same time my Mom got pregnant with this body so I never really knew it,” Danny said, not meeting Steve’s eyes. “I got lucky being allowed out into the human world this early.”

“You really like the human world, don’t you?” Steve said. It was barely a question since Danny had proved several times how much the human world meant to him. He protected it from magical threats on a daily basis and had been doing that for most of his life.

“I do. I like this reality. There’s football and pizza, so I would like it if we do not die,” Danny said.

Steve was relieved that at least now Danny was voicing his anxiety. It didn’t mean Danny was any less worried but it meant at least that Danny was letting the worry out, and that meant he was actually focussed on the job. “We’ll be careful, Danny, we can do this.”

“I know but that’s what I’m afraid of.”

Steve didn’t ask what Danny meant by that. Maybe he was referring to the bond between them. Even now Steve could feel their magical energy humming together in harmony. There was a feeling between them that was excitement, hope and confidence. It probably didn’t fit too well with Danny’s naturally worrying tendencies.

They reached the cave and parked up. Steve got out of the car first. There wasn’t a sign of anyone else but there was a definite feeling of magic in the sir. Something felt imminent.

“There’s an entrance just near here. Come on,” Steve said and he led the way toward the path.

They had to climb down a hill to reach the entrance. They could have tried the entrance near the road but a car parked there might have drawn too much attention. Steve led the way down the sandy and narrow path until eventually they hit a level sandy area.

This was where the main cave entrance was. The mouth of the cave was quite big and wide. This was the area where most of the tourists took their pictures but luckily today it was deserted. Steve stepped inside and he could smell the damp and dark atmosphere.

“I hate this,” Danny mumbled as they made their way into the cave.

“Watch your step,” Steve said.

The deeper they went the lower the ceiling seemed to get. Steve touched the walls. He turned on his flashlight but it was good to get the feedback from their surroundings too. He could feel something running through the caves an energy that was different from his and Danny’s magical energy, but one that was familiar, although out of reach and uncontrollable. He guessed that was earth magic, part of the very rock.

“This is not easy to get into,” Danny said, as the cave began to narrow. “We need to be careful.”

“I know, Danny, these caves aren’t the most stable,” Steve said as he stepped over a rock. He looked up and shone his flashlight, looking for any tell-tale cracks in the rock that might indicate instability.

“I wasn’t talking about the caves. But yes, let’s be careful with them too,” Danny said. 

Deeper and deeper they wandered through the cave system, keeping quiet. The deeper they went the darker it got and even the flashlight wasn’t much help. There was something else too. The deeper into the caves they got the more Steve felt darkness. It was a strange concept in pitch black caves but that was what it felt like.

It was a similar feeling to being in bed as a child and thinking there was something hiding in the shadows in the corner of the bedroom.

“Can you feel that?” Steve asked.

“Yes, Steve, I can feel it. It’s not exactly the best feeling,” Danny said.

He was right, it made Steve’s skin crawl. He could feel his magical body feeling dirty. 

“Why does it feel that bad?”

“Because our magical energy is not meant to be used like this. It’s twisting it into something it shouldn’t be,” Danny said.

Steve could no longer get any sense of any other energy, just the strange dark twisted energy that was making him feel more than a little uncomfortable. “We must be close.”

There was an odd sound, the sound of something shifting. For a moment Steve was worried about the cave collapsing a little but as he turned around to Danny he could see his partner falling unconscious to the floor.

“Danny!”

Then there was that sound again at his back, like rocks moving against each other. He turned around, shining his flashlight to see what it was but then he felt a pain in his head and his legs gave way as he lost consciousness.

As Steve came to he could feel a lot of energy, too much. He opened his eyes and glanced around. He was in a cave, quite a large one. There wasn’t much space because most of the cave was taken up with a massive ball of magical energy.

The energy was a deep colour, an orange bordering on red and it swirled around like an angry current. It looked so different to the gentle magical balls of energy that Steve, Danny and the kids had played with just a couple of days earlier. This ball seemed to be almost alive, a dangerous predator.

He heard a groan to his left. He tried to turn toward Danny but his arms were restrained by handcuffs and chains. He pulled at them and it seemed as if there was a magical component to the restraints. He tried slipping out of them but something held him back.

“Danny, are you okay?”

Danny moaned a little. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

“Is that the wave bomb?” Steve asked.

A figure stepped out of the shadows cast by the magical energy ball. It was hard to make out who it was as they were wearing dark robes that cast shadows across their face. “Very observant of you, Commander,” the figure said, “it is the bomb. The bomb that will usher in a new era on Hawaii. An era where we’re not dictated to by the whims of human beings.”

“Those human beings belong here,” Steve said. “You don’t.”

“Of course I do,” the figure came closer and with enough light coming from the ball Steve could now see it was David Whitely. He was quite different from the silent man who had seen Steve’s conversion. “Come on, Commander. You’ve had a little taste of what we are capable of. Next to these humans we’re practically gods.”

Beside Steve Danny let out a nervous laugh. “Oh, so this is about your ego. You want to destroy thousands of Mer because you want to feel like a big man.”

David turned his gaze coldly on Danny. He looked far more intimidating than he had. “Even in the face of death you still have an attitude, Enforcer Williams.”

“We’re not gods,” Danny said. “We’re just magical beings who have been allowed to come to earth.”

“Ah yes,” David smiled coldly. “Well, you’ve forfeited any further chance of that, haven’t you? Does Commander McGarrett even know?”

Steve was confused because a look of terrible guilt was on Danny’s face and he could almost feel it, it was that strong. “Danny, what’s he talking about?”

“Oh, dear he didn’t tell you, did he?” David said.

Steve pulled at his restraints both physical and magical. “Tell me what?”

“Magic to save a life, a human life, and complete a conversion, requires sacrifice. Danny saved your life and in return he forfeited his human lives.”

Now Steve was very confused. Danny wasn’t looking any less guilty either. “Human lives? What? What is he talking about, Danny?”

David didn’t give Danny a chance to talk but continued himself. “As magical beings we can live forever on the magical plane, our own realm, but to participate in the human world we need physical bodies and we have to be allowed to inhabit them. Danny could have had a thousand lifetimes over and over in the human world, reborn again and again, but he chose to spend the rest of eternity on the magical plane just so you could live and become one of us.”

That couldn’t be right, Steve thought. That would mean Danny gave up the human world, thousands of possible futures, for him. That was a depth of love so powerful Steve could barely comprehend it. “Is what he’s saying true, Danny?” he asked, even as he could see in Danny’s eyes that it was the truth.

“Yes, it’s true, okay?” Danny said, raising his voice. “My parents have been part of the human world for a long time, my sister too, but this was my first time and I decided… Steve, it wouldn’t be worth other lifetimes if I had to spend the rest of this one without you.”

Danny sagged in defeat in his restraints. He had never taken his eyes off Steve the entire time. Steve had seen that this was the only thing Danny had been holding back. This was why he had been the way he had been in the car. Danny was immortal near enough but the human world was all he had ever known and he had given up his future there for Steve.

“Danny...” Steve couldn’t really think of any words that were adequate. “I love you.”

“I know,” Danny replied.

“How sentimental,” David said as he pulled out a gun. “And now I’ll destroy your human body so you’ll be trapped in our realm for eternity, cut off from everything in this reality, your life, your children, everything you care about. Maybe I’ll keep Steve alive and you can be trapped in our realm without even knowing what he’s doing. Any last words to the man you obviously love?”

“Steve, listen to me,” Danny said. “I have never felt the same as when I was with you. When we’re together we’re something else, do you understand? You feel it too, right?”

Steve could feel Danny’s magical body reaching out toward his own. Separately they had power but together they were powerful. He felt it more strongly than he had ever felt anything in his life. “Yeah, Danny, I do.”

They didn’t have much time but as David hadn’t pulled the trigger yet they had enough. Steve reached out with his magical body. It was hard against the restraints but it only took a little touch of his magical body to Danny’s and suddenly the magical restraints fell away. Their combined energy, even the tiniest sliver, was powerful enough to overcome the restraints and set them free.

Immediately Steve merged his reserve energy with Danny’s, picturing those two rivers of energy coming together into a larger one, one that flowed strong and deep. As he did so they both slipped, freeing themselves completely. David fired and a bullet hit the rocks where they had been restrained, even as they slipped down a layer.

Now David was firing wildly, bullets ricocheting off the rock walls, but they kept slipped down a layer. This time however they kept themselves so close to the layer surface that they could see David. Keeping him in their sights they knew when he had slipped down a layer so they slipped one below again.

All the time Steve felt he and Danny didn’t need to say a word. They knew what they were doing, they were in tune. Steve could feel their energy pass between them. He let Danny guide them and decide how to spend their energies. He kept them in balance.

David had now slipped back to the human reality layer. Clearly, he was moving toward the bomb. They had no time so Steve slipped and grabbed the gun, shifting it back a layer even as Danny grabbed David’s wrists to keep him restrained.

“What are you doing?” David asked with anger in his voice. “This isn’t… no, stop it.”

Their combined energies were enough to keep him slipping or indeed doing anything else. They had put a magical blanket over David to act as a dampener. It was hard to keep it steady as David was throwing everything he had to try and free himself from their restraint.

“I’m Enforcer McGarrett and this is Enforcer Williams,” Steve said. “You are under arrest for the murder of Hannah Chang.”

“I’m not coming with you,” David said. He stared at the magic ball and it flared outward.

It was a minor enough distraction that they lost their grip on David. Danny was thrown back but Steve knew he was okay because Danny pushed his hands forward and sent a blast of energy that they both channelled into knocking David over.

It was clear David was powerful. He was a council member after-all, but his reserves had been spent making the bomb. On the other hand Steve and Danny’s shared reserve flowed strongly and showed no signs of running out. Steve this time sent a bolt of energy to stop David, slicing his hand toward David and unleashing what looked like a lightning strike.

David was knocked backward against the wall. As he got up his visage had changed. His glow was orange, angry and tinged with tendrils of darker energy. These shadows curled around him. It was clear David was drawing dark energy into his reserves. A risky move because dark energy near the magical wave bomb could easily set it off.

Steve knew they had to act, and soon. Danny was by his side, magical body linked to his. The plan passed between them, there was no need for words. This was what they had to do. They had one chance to stop David.

David roared as he came toward them and Steve and Danny’s reserves poured together to create a beam of energy that hit David head on. It pushed him back and back and then the energy changed subtly and there was a shift.

David disappeared into the rock wall of the cave but though he couldn’t be seen Steve knew where he was headed. He and Danny pushed and pushed they pushed David down layer and layer after layer until finally they could feel shadows grabbing at David and quickly pulled their own energy back.

There was a reverberation of a scream echoing back through the layers but then there was silence. For a moment, it seemed that they had won but then the magical bomb began to pulse outward.

“Danny, the bomb,” Steve said, as he turned toward it.

“It was only contained because David was here. Now he’s gone there’s nothing to hold it back,” Danny said.

The pulses were getting stronger and there was a loud hum building. “How do we stop it?”

“We can’t stop it, it’s not our energy so we can’t absorb it,” Danny said. 

“Can we shift it?” Steve asked. “If we shifted it down to the deeper layers would it still explode?”

“Yes,” Danny said, looking worried as the glow of orange energy began to build. “But if we can shift it down far enough it should be absorbed by the monsters living there.”

“So, let’s do that.”

“Okay.”

“Okay? That’s all you’ve got to say?” Steve had been expecting Danny to come up with some remark or a speech about what a terrible idea it was.

“Steve, whatever happens… happens.”

With a nod Steve understood. “I know, Danny. I know. Ready?”

“No, but let’s do it.”

Steve touched his magical body to Danny’s, as if they were holding hands. They had to try and picture some sort of containment so they could hold it and push it down, down to those creatures that would feed upon it, destroying it.

It wasn’t easy to try and keep it contained. Steve could already feel it trying to break out. It was like trying to keep a wave from breaking. He tried to push the energy back but it was hard. He drew his magical body closer to Danny’s. The closer they got the easier it seemed to be to push back against the bomb.

It was an effort but their energy was strong. They pushed and pushed.

Gradually their magical bodies started to merge. It wasn’t like when they had sex, this was a different emotion behind it, and so the merging felt different. Steve could feel their separate consciousness but at the same time there was a shared one, one that held the two of them. It was that one that was acting now, out of instinct.

That instinct was enough to push the magical energy. It was still pulsing angrily at them but it didn’t hurt to push back and contain it. Together the entity that was now SteveandDanny gave a gentle push back, like a hand touching a delicate ball of water. It didn’t actually take much for SteveandDanny to push the ball back, it was out of the cave now, out of the human reality.

Each gentle movement, each added pressure pushed it back farther. The energy grew more unstable but the shared magical body of SteveandDanny didn’t notice. They were focused on the goal. With a final push, they let the ball drift and it went down further and further. Then they felt a rumble as wyrms, graps and other such creatures came up to fed on the ball. The energy was blowing outward but it was being devoured just as quickly.

Then they started moving back up. Steve was aware of himself but he didn’t want to let go of Danny. They kept themselves merged even as they came back to the human layer. Their human bodies taking in a gulp of air as they broke through into human reality. Had they stopped breathing whilst merged like that? Steve didn’t know.

They gently untangled themselves and Steve felt himself realign back in his human body. He became aware of the darkness of the cave, of the fact the air was quite stale. It felt weird, wrong almost.

“Danny? You alright?” Steve asked, grasping Danny’s human hand with his.

Danny gave it a squeeze. “Yeah, I’m okay. Let’s just get out of here.”

It wasn’t easy for them to find their way out of the caves. They had no light. Until of course Danny conjured up a magical ball of light. Steve wished he’d thought of that because Danny was rather smug. Their reserves were still more or less merged though so Steve sneakily added to the ball to make it larger and brighter, which threw off Danny’s control.

“Really, Steven?” Danny asked.

Steve just smiled.

As they reached the entrance to the cave they could see Chin, Kono and Eric waiting just outside. It was a relief to see them. A relief to see daylight. Steve kept Danny’s hand in his as they walked out of the cave toward them. 

“Steve! Danny!” Kono said.

They reached their little party and Steve let Kono hug him and Danny, even if he was loathe to let go of Danny’s hand. He needed a connection between them Although eventually the human connection was broken Steve kept a bit of his magical body in contact with Danny’s.

He gave Chin a hug. “I thought I told you to stay back at HQ.”

“We weren’t going to miss this, boss,” Kono said. 

“Well it’s okay the bomb’s gone,” Steve glanced back into the cave. Caves that now seemed cleaner than before. That energy that ran through the caves was still there but perhaps a bit less hostile toward them now.

“Gone?

“Yeah, it’s probably being fed on by monsters right now,” Danny said, also sparing the cave a glance. 

“You shifted it to a dark layer?” Eric asked.

Danny turned his nephew. “We did.”

“That’s incredible. I mean that’s legendary,” Eric said, getting so excited he was practically bouncing.

The exuberance of Eric was interrupted by Carol walking up to them. She was dressed more casually now. Almost like a tourist, though her insistence on wearing white jeans and bright white top gave her away as something else.

“Enforcer Williams. Enforcer McGarrett,” she said. 

“Councillor,” Danny said.

Steve bowed his head in polite greeting. 

“We were informed of David Whitley’s intentions by your colleagues,” Carol indicated Chin and Kono. “Where is he?”

“He’s not around to answer questions,” Steve said. 

“I see,” Carol pursed her lips. “Well we won’t mourn his loss under the circumstances. You shifted a wave bomb bigger than anything in our history, how did you manage to do it?”

“We worked together,” Steve said. He wasn’t going to elaborate any further than that. What he and Danny had done, what they were capable of, was not something he was prepared to share right now, not with a politician anyway.

“Your potential seems to be more than our Seers thought,” Carol said, a slight smile crossing her lips.

“You knew this was going to happen,” Danny said, sounding as angry as he had around the time of Steve’s conversion.

“Seers aren’t always precise on their prophecies but on this occasion, they do seem to be have been correct.”

“People could have died because of this!” Danny said

Chin and Kono had backed away and Eric too had wandered off a little way. Steve stood right next to Danny, sharing his anger. 

“But they didn’t because you triumphed. The Council will of course recognise your status as a merged pair and I believe I can say that you are officially appointed as the Enforcers for the entire Hawaiian area,” Carol said. She offered a hand.

“We don’t need your approval for that,” Steve said, but he took her hand and shook it anyway. He and Danny were the Enforcers of the area whether they were approved or not. Being an Enforcer was who they both were and protecting Hawaii was something they both believed in.

Carol turned to shake Danny’s hand. “Great sacrifices, Enforcer Williams, are always rewarded. You should remember that.”

She nodded. “Enforcers.”

“Councillor,” they replied, as civilly as they could

Once Carol had walked away Steve slung his arm around Danny’s shoulder. “What do you want to do now?” he asked.

Danny sighed. “Right now, I want to go home and have a beer. Non-alcoholic because we still can’t drink.”

“I think we can manage that.”

 

There were a few formalities they had to sort out but before long they were back at Steve’s home. A home that was starting to belong to Danny too. They sat outside on the chairs they had sat in many times before, looking out over the ocean view as the sun began to set, cold and non-alcoholic beers in hand.

“This is nice, isn’t it?” Steve said, looking out at the gentle waves.

“This is perfect. You, me, a sunset, a cold beer,” Danny replied.

Steve turned to Danny and they clinked their bottles together.

Taking a swig of beer Steve smiled. “You seem more relaxed. I mean I don’t want to assume anything but you seem happy Danny.”

“I am happy,” Danny admitted. “See I’m smiling.”

He was smiling. In a way Steve hadn’t really seen before. This was a new smile, a smile that spoke of contentment, as if for the first time in his life Danny was living in a contented moment and not worrying about what was going to happen next.

“I know, it’s just not a look I’m used to seeing on you.”

“Well, a near death experience makes you realise some things.”

Steve was curious. “Like what?”

“Like I am stuck with you for the rest of eternity,” Danny laughed. “And for some reason that makes me happy.”

“You are stuck with me,” Steve promised. 

“This doesn’t mean that you can risk our lives more often. This just means that when this human life is over…”

“We’ll always be together,” Steve said. There was no Steve without Danny and no Danny without Steve now. “You felt that too. Even if we’re not together, we’re together.”

“Yes. But you still take care of that human body because I did donate a liver to keep it alive,” Danny said, raising his bottle.

“Yes, you did and thank you for that.”

“You’re welcome.”

As they looked out to the ocean Steve knew that Danny could feel exactly how grateful he was. For the first time in his life Steve felt right. It was strange he hadn’t even realised he hadn’t been right until now. He thought he had found his place and purpose in life in the Navy but really this here now with Danny? This was it. This was who and what he was meant to be.

Steve didn’t know what the future held. He didn’t know where Danny and he would end up. He just knew that they would be together. He reached out with his magical body and lightly entwined it with the edges of Danny’s. That feeling of connection was all he needed.

As the sun set its glow couldn’t match the glow coming from the two men sat watching. Steve smiled and he felt Danny smile. Later they’d affirm their connection but for now all he needed was their gentle touching and the sound of the waves lapping at the shore.

Steve was home.


End file.
